Learning To Trust
by Dragon's Blood
Summary: Roxas is the street dog of Twilight Town until a girl named Namine came into his life. She shows Roxas that it's possible to get close to someone without getting hurt in the end.
1. A Rough Beginning

_**I'm re-doing just about every chapter, to make it seem a little better. But the story line will be the same! Just improving the writing of it. **_

**Well, here we go with the first chapter! Hope you like it.**

There was a light drizzle outside and soft cold winds passing by. In a run down shack on the edge of Twilight Town was a group of the town's 'less fortunate' folk. There was only four in the beat up shack.

Every year the population of homeless people in Twilight Town grew. The taxies were always growing too. And business owners were finding better ways of getting the job done with fewer workers. But not only were people becoming homeless because they lots their jobs and could no longer keep their home but some of them were having children on the streets as well. That's how Roxas came to live on the streets. His mother did the best she could to try and raise him. And his father died from an illness he caught before Roxas was born.

Among the four people in the run down shack on the edge of town were Roxas and his mother. Roxas was five at this time and also getting quite hungry.

"Mommy when can we eat? I'm hungry." He said as he looked up at his mother.

"I'm sorry baby, but we don't have any food right now." She told him. Roxas wasn't the only one who was hungry in that shack.

An old man on the other side of the cold room heard what the little boy had said and walked over to him.

"Here." The old man had a raspy but kind voice. He held out his hand with a piece of bread in it.

Roxas looked up at him and then at his mother as if to ask 'is it alright?' His mother nodded to him and he took the bread and ate it in almost one bite. The old man patted his head and walked back to the corner from which he came.

The only light in the shack came from a fire burning in an aluminum trash bin in the middle of the room. It also gave them warmth as night approached.

It rained that night. And the tin roof had plenty of holes due to rust. But Roxas and his mother found a dry corner to sleep in. In the morning they sadly found out that the old man who had given his bread to Roxas, had died. The other man in the shack had gone to notify the police on what had happened so they could take the body. When this happed the police told the Town's government about the serious problem growing in the town. And that something had to be done to help the homeless. The Governor soon had a homeless shelter built. And it was open to any homeless person who wanted a temporary home. It provided food, beds, showers, and medical treatment. When the shelter was finally completed Roxas was seven years old. Roxas' mother quickly took her son to the homeless shelter.

"Wow mom, can we really live here?" Said Roxas as he looked around the room that had been given to them.

"Yes, but not forever. Mommy is eventually going to get a job and get enough money to get ourselves a house to live in together." His mother smiled to him.

Roxas when over to his mother and gave her a big smile and hug. He had never been happier. He got his first actual shower that night and a whole meal to eat for dinner. Then got to sleep in his first bed that had a mattress, sheets and pillows.

A week later Roxas' mother got very sick. When she finally got better the doctor told her she would need to be on a special medication for the rest of her life. And when she would run out of her medicine she would take the train to the other side of Twilight Town to get some more. The homeless shelter had paid for her medicine.

"Roxas, mommy is going to go down to the doctors again to get her medicine. I'll be back in a little while." She told him.

"But can I come with you?" He asked.

"No sweetie it's dark and I don't want you getting lost in the dark." She said to him and then was out the door.

Roxas hated it when she wasn't around. He was incredibly shy. He never spoke to any of the volunteers at the shelter or the other kids. An hour had passed and she still wasn't back. So the volunteers put him to bed and told him he would see his mother in the morning.

It was the next morning and she still wasn't back. Days went by and she never came back for him. Roxas was crushed. She was the only person who truly ever cared or loved him. And after that, he never talked to anyone. He only answered yes or no questions with a shake or nod of his head. When he was feeling sick he never said anything. When he was hungry he never said anything. Eventually he ran away when he was nine. He tried living alone on the streets by stealing for food and sleeping on the benches in the park and when it rained he slept in the playground tunnels.

He kept that up for about two weeks, until he crossed paths with a very unusual looking young man. He was very tall and slender, and had bright red spiky hair…

They met one early morning sometime in September. Roxas was trying his best to climb up on trash cans that he had piled together to reach a glass of water someone had placed on a window sill on the second floor of an apartment structure. When he had his arm stretched out to the point that his fingertips were touching the glass – a strong gust of wind knocked him off balance and Roxas fell off and hit can after can all the way to the ground.

"Ah! What the hell happened!" he yelled out of his pain and disappointment. He was really thirsty…

"I'd say that was a pretty admiral attempt there, but your going about it all wrong little guy." Said a voice from somewhere behind Roxas. He whipped his head around to look at who said that. And there stood the spiky red head.

"And who are you?" Roxas asked, sounding defensive.

"No one of importance to you, I'm sure." The young man said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Hey, are you look 'in for a fight?" Roxas said as he got up off the ground.

"Haha! Fine. Come on then." The red head said. He then crouched slightly and held his arms to his sides, as if to brace himself. But Roxas didn't charge him, in fact, he actually took a step backward and lowered his head. "Yep, that's what I thought."

Roxas started to walk off when the red head called out to him –

"So what did you think you were doing? Climbing up on that unstable pile of trash cans for?"

"None of your business."

"Oh, well what if I made it my business?"

At that Roxas turned around to look at him again, "Why do you wanna know so badly?"

"I'm a noisy person." The red head said with a smile and crossing his arms.

"I was just thirsty is all." Was Roxas' reply. Then continued to walk away.

"I can get you something to drink."

Again, Roxas turned to look at him, "You can?" he said in a slightly excited voice.

"Oh yeah, but your gonna have to follow me across town. And no, I'm not a dirty pedophile. Your just going to have to trust me if you want as much cold water as you can drink."

Roxas didn't need anymore persuading than that, but came over slowly and reluctantly to the young man standing about 20 yards away from him. Then they began walking down the streets of Twilight Town together. Along the way, the red head was asking Roxas a few questions.

"You look awful filthy and beat up for just falling off of trash cans. Where do you live?" he asked.

"…Nowhere." Was Roxas' reply.

"Nowhere? Great!"

"'Great'? How is that great?"

"I don't really live anywhere ether, so if you want and if my friends like ya, you can stay with me and all of them. They're a friendly bunch, at times, but I'm sure you'll like 'em and they'll like you."

Roxas stopped walking for a moment, the sound of a home and friends was too good to be true, but then quickly caught up to the red head again.

"How old are you anyway kid?"

"I'm nine."

"Nine, and you have no home! Where are your parents?"

"Well, I never knew my dad and my mom…_left_ me at a shelter" Roxas said, trying hard not to say "ditched".

"If you were at that shelter, why didn't you stay?"

"Just didn't like the place…so I ran away."

"So kid, you gotta name?"

"It's Roxas."

The red head stopped and turned to Roxas, "Nice to met you Roxas, I'm Axel." And Axel held out a hand to Roxas, he took it and they shook hands.

**Hope you enjoyed!**

**-Dragon's Blood**


	2. Imprisoned Yet Again

**Chapter two: Imprisoned Yet Again**

"_So kid, you gotta name?"_

"_It's Roxas."_

_The red head stopped and turned to Roxas, "Nice to met you Roxas, I'm Axel." And Axel held out a hand to Roxas, he took it and they shook hands._

_6 years later…_

One night when Roxas was trying to go to sleep on the park bench it started to rain. So he made his way over to the play set for some shelter from the rain. Just as he was about to fall asleep he heard someone yell for what sounded like help.

He looked out of the tunnel he was in to see what was going on. He saw three older teens trying to drag a younger teen off to some place. Probably so they could do some not-so-nice things to her. Roxas knew exactly what went on in this part of town. He also knew what being ganged up on felt like, so he went to go to see if he could help.

"Let go of me you jerks!" The girl yelled at them.

"Why would we do that? We just wanna have some fun." Said one of the bigger guys.

"Hey, let her go you cock-biting fucktards!" Roxas yelled as he ran up and punched the guy who was pulling her right arm. And he went flying to the ground.

"What the-? Why you little brat! Come here we're gonna kick your ass!" Said the biggest of the three.

Roxas stepped in front of the girl and held up his fists. The other two came running at him.

"You, run! Get out of here!" Roxas told the girl. He didn't want her getting hurt when he was trying so hard to help her. She took off without a word and hid behind a close by tree to make sure this skinny little boy would make it out alright.

When the big dude came at him first, Roxas dove to the side and swung his leg around and kicked him hard in the back. Then the second one came and threw a punch at Roxas' face. But Roxas moved just in time. Then Roxas grabbed the guy's arm and flipped him on his back onto the ground.

He dusted himself off and was about to go over to the girl but then the first guy he hit who was pulling on the girl's arm got up and got Roxas in a headlock.

"Thought you were gonna win hu?" Said the teen that had caught him.

"Eh, yeah actually." Roxas said in a muffled voice due to the arm wrapped around his neck. He was struggling to get away but the other guy had too strong a hold on him.

"Yeah well now yer gonna get it!" Said the big guy when he got up from the ground.

Roxas struggled harder to get away. But it was useless. The big guy hit him in the stomach and then the thug holding Roxas in a headlock let him fall to the ground. Then the one who was holding him kicked him as hard as he could in his side. When he did so, there was a horrible 'crack' noise. Roxas yelled out in pain. Then they kicked him again, but in the back and he rolled down the grass hill. About half way down he stopped yelling. He finally came to a stop at the bottom and was lying on his side. He didn't get up.

"Hahaha! Let that be a lesson to ya! Don't ever interfere with us again!" The big one yelled as they walked off.

Luckily they forgot about the girl. She came running out from behind the tree and looked down the hill. She saw him motionless at the bottom. She scrambled down the hill to him.

"Oh, are you alright? Hey, can you hear me?" She said as she gently shook his shoulder to try to get a response.

He just slowly looked up at her with one eye then put his head back down on the grass and didn't move or make a sound.

"Oh god I need to go get you some help!" And with that she ran off to find someone.

………………………..

Roxas finally woke up and found himself wrapped up in a lot of blankets. He was also wrapped up in bandages. He tried to sit up and look around but couldn't due to the extreme pain in his side.

"AHH!" He cried out.

"Oh your awake! Please, don't move. You broke two of your ribs last night."

"That's what it feels like, ow." Roxas said. "Hey, where am I?"

"Why Roxas your back in your old room you used to stay in at the shelter." Said the lady who was watching over him.

"WHAT!" And with that he passed out again.

………………………..

Later the next day when Roxas woke up again he remembered where he was. He was back in the homeless shelter that he ran away from six years ago when he was nine.

"_Why? Why did I have to be brought back here?"_ He thought to himself. _"Hmmm, I can find a way out of here like I did last time."_

Last time he had to escape in order to get out because the shelter wouldn't allow little nine-year-old Roxas to wander the streets without a guardian. So he simply jumped out the widow one night. The shelter was out the next day looking for him when he did this. And when they found him they tried to ether coast him over to them with food, bribe him into coming back, and just simply trying to catch him with their own bare hands. (A/N sounds like I'm talking about an escaped dog doesn't it?)

Well all of their attempts were useless because Roxas was too fast and smart for them. He hated the shelter so much because he didn't feel right in a large group of unfamiliar people all the time. He was always very shy, scared almost of other people. He also wasn't an 'inside' person. And most of all it reminded him of his mother and made him very sad.

"Ok, here it goes." Roxas said as he tried his hardest to sit up.

He finally got up but was now in extreme pain too. But he hobbled over to the window and opened it.

"And where the hell do you think your going in that condition?" Said a girl's voice from behind him.

"Oh a…I just wanted the window open for some fresh air." Roxas told her.

"Right, then why is your leg hanging out of the window?" The girl said as she crossed her arms.

"I ah…" Roxas couldn't come up with anything for that one.

"Uh hu. Come back here and lie down before you hurt yourself even worse."

Roxas slowly walked back over to the bed and sat down.

"So how are you feeling? Your obviously feeling better to try and hop out the window. Why such a rush to go back out there?" She asked as she placed his breakfast on the table next to him.

"Sorry." He said with a slight attitude.

"There's no need to be defensive. And by the way I never thanked you for last night. You really saved my life back there." She told him.

"Hu? You were the one getting harassed last night? Wow it was so dark I don't remember what you looked like." He looked back up at her.

"Hehe, my name is Namine. I heard from the other volunteers that your name is Roxas, right?"

"Yeah, that's me. Did they say anything else?"

"Yeah they said that they were after you for six years. Six years! And then the very first time I run into you, I got you back. Against your will obviously. They got so frustrated with trying to catch you that they were almost happy to hear when you got beat up."

"Beaten up? What are you talking about? They chickened out!"

"You keep telling yourself that…"

"What did you say?"

"Oh nothing, well you should eat your breakfast and get some more rest now. And I also will be the one to take care of you until you get better." Namine said as she walked towards the door.

"Uh, ok. Will I be seeing you soon then?" He asked.

"Not for about an hour. Why?" She asked.

"Cuz…I'm really not feeling too…" Then Roxas fell over and off the bed in a crash.

"Oh! Not good!" Namine said as she ran over to him. "You idiot, see I told you it was a bad idea to try to walk around so soon."

"Uh…" Was all he said to her.

She put him on the bed and let him sleep some more. He obviously hasn't been getting enough sleep. She sat on the bed next to him. Namine looked at him for a little bit. Then she placed her hand on his head and slowly stroked his messy hair.

**-Dragon's blood**


	3. Forgotten Yet Again

**Chapter three: Forgotten Yet Again**

Namine got Roxas to stay in his room and rest for another day before she let him walk around the shelter.

(A/N which I'm now going to call the home. The shelter sounds like the pound or something…)

She would spend all the time she volunteered at the home with Roxas. Everyday she got there at 1:30pm. Except for on weekends when she spent the whole day there with him. School kept her away Monday through Friday till noon. She would bring stuff for them to do together. She brought picture books of animals and well-known places on earth that Roxas had never seen, CD's of the new and popular bands for them to listen to, and she also brought a sketch book to teach Roxas how to do her favorite hobby - drawing.

"Roxas, when your all healed up I'll take you to wherever you want to go. I promise." Namine said to Roxas when they were listening to a CD of hers.

"Wherever I want to go? Namine, you don't have to do that for me."

"Yes I do! And you know you really want to." She said to him with a smile on her face.

"Well, I always kinda wanted to play some video games in an arcade. The kids in there always look like they're having fun."

"Oh the arcade! I live the arcade! Sure Roxas I'll take you there." She planed on teaching him how to play DDR when they got there.

Another week had gone by and Namine and Roxas went on walks around the home to get some fresh air. She always watched him closely as to make sure he didn't try to make another run for it.

That afternoon Namine decided to do something with Roxas' messy mane of wild hair. (It looked like Axel's long spiky hair, but blonde and a little messier. Hey, he's been a hobo with no way to cut or keep his hair neat.)

"Hey Roxas, have you every thought of cleaning up your hair?" Namine asked him one day on their walk around the home.

"Uh, no. Why?" He had no idea where she was going with this.

"Would you mind if I cleaned it up a bit and gave you a trim?"

"Only if you know what your doing." He said to her.

And with that Namine lead him off to the hygiene area of the home.

……………………..

"Roxas you have to hold still!" Namine scolded him.

"Well maybe if you weren't pulling my hair so much I could! I thought you said you knew what you were doing?" He said in between grunts as Namine tried to get some nasty knots out of his wild hair.

"Ok, ok I'm just gonna cut those knots out."

She reached over for the scissors and started cutting away. About twenty minutes later Roxas' hair still looked very wild, but had a neater and cleaner look to it. (It basically looks like it does in the game now.)

"There, how do you like it?" She said as she let him see himself in the mirror.

"Wow, you really did know what you were doing." Roxas said as he was very pleased with it.

"And you ever doubted me?" She said as she put her hands on her hips. Actually, she had no idea what she was doing. Namine was just glad she didn't mess up big time.

"Yeah I did. I thought I was going to have to shave my hair off because you did such a bad job."

"Oh thanks!" She said sarcastically.

Another week had gone by and Roxas was feeling like he was in a prision. As he was told, due to his age, he was an orphan and had to be adopted in order to roam freely and come and go as he pleased. But before Roxas knew it, it was the day that Namine was going to take him to the arcade. But for some reason she was late. So Roxas went up to one of the volunteers to ask when she would be here.

"Hey Areth, when is Namine going to get here today?" Roxas asked her.

"Oh she didn't tell you? She and her parents took her on one of their business trips. She wont be back for two weeks. Sorry dear." Areth knew how much he liked Namine and also knew that because she wasn't going to be there for two weeks Roxas would be really sad and might even try to run away again. So all the volunteers and residents in the home kept an eye on him.

"You wont be back for two weeks?" He said to himself in his room. "Then I'll wait for you."

_**In Namine's plane**_

"_Sigh,"_ She thought to herself, _"I'm so sorry Roxas, I didn't tell you. Well, I didn't know until this morning. Please don't be mad at me when I get back. Please be there when I get back."_

She knew that he was dieing to leave the home too. So she was worried she wouldn't see him when she went back. That he would think that she's abandoned him like his mother did…

…………………………

Roxas was sitting alone in his room. Normally at this time of day, Namine would have been there by now. It was only the second day of her being gone and he was already lonely and bored to no end. So he decided to sneak out and try to find some fun. Since there was no one there to stop him now.

He hopped out the window and walked over to the gates. But then one of the volunteers saw him.

"Hey Roxas, where do you think your going?" Areth asked.

"Ga! Oh ah, nowhere." He said. He turned to go back into the home.

"Roxas if you wanted to go out for today all you had to do was ask."

"Really? So can I go out then?" Roxas said.

"Of course. We're not going to trap you here forever. Just be back before dark." Areth said to him. Then went back in the home.

"She sounds like a mom." And with that, he ran off. Though he really wished he could spend his first day back out with Namine.

And all Namine was worrying about the whole trip was whether or not Roxas would still be there when she got back. She wondered also why her parents chose now of all times to spend time with her. Namine's parents were the kind of people who made lots of money but where too busy going places due to business to go home for a while and relax often.

And they never got many chances to spend time with their only daughter ether. So that's why they took her with them on one of their business trips. But she much rather have stayed home but she didn't tell them that. She loved them and didn't want to hurt their feelings. Even though because of them, she might lose Roxas, one of her only friends.

Roxas was her best friend. All the other students at her school didn't like her because they were jealous of her lifestyle. So they had a grudge on her because her parents where rich. They thought she was a snobby miss prissy little girl. But none of the other students ever tried to get to know her.

…………………………..

It was just two days before Namine came back and all Roxas could do was walk around town trying to waste some time. He got back just as it was getting dark.

"There you are, I was getting worried." Areth said as she greeted him at the door. He smiled to her on his way in.

It was finally the day Namine was supposed to come back and Roxas waited at the window for her to arrive. Afternoon came and Roxas was still waiting at the window. Then dusk came and she still wasn't here.

"Sigh, maybe her flight was delayed." And he went off to eat dinner and go to bed.

She still hadn't come back for five more days.

"Where could she be? She should have been back days ago. Maybe she did come back but didn't want to come back here to see me…no, she wouldn't do that, would she?"

Two more days passed and Roxas was convinced he had been ditched yet again by someone he thought he could get close to. This was the second time someone dear do him never came back. That night he gathered what he had in a small backpack, hopped out the window, jumped over the gate and was gone.

Then the next day Namine finally arrived on her plane after being gone for three weeks instead of just two. Her parents had to stay one week longer because something came up that they needed to take care of before they came back. The first thing Namine did after unpacking was run over to the shelter to see her friend.

She finally came in the door and saw Areth.

"Oh Namine your back! Roxas will be so happy to finally see you."

"He's still here! Great! I can't wait to see him!" she clapped her hands together.

"I haven't seen him all day, he hasn't come out of his room at all."

Namine ran down to his room and knocked.

"Roxas! Are you in there? It's me, Namine! I'm back! Roxas?" there was no answer. So she opened the door and came in. He wasn't in there. "Roxas…?"

She went back to Areth and told her that she couldn't find him.

"What? He's not here? Oh no, well we better go out and try to find him. Come on Namine, I think I might know where he is." And then they headed off to the town's park.

When they got there, Areth and Namine split up and search the park for him.

"Roxas! Roxas where are you?" she walked through the park calling out for him.

A little further down the park she saw Roxas sitting on a bench with his back facing her.

"Roxas!" she ran over to him.

He turned around to see Namine running towards him.

"N-Namine!" he got up and she tackled him with a hug.

Roxas and Namine were stood there in the park in their hug for almost a minute when Roxas snapped out of it and leg go of her.

"H-hi." Was all Roxas could say.

"Hi." Namine said back, looking into his shiny blue eyes.

"There you are Roxas! We were worried about you!" Areth said as she found the two.

"Areth?" Roxas was surprised to see her too. "You both went looking for me?"

"Of course we did!" Namine said, "We want you to come back home."

"Come back…home?" The phrase sounded weird to him.

"Please?" She hugged him again.

"Sure." And the hugged her back.

…………………………

When they all got back it was dark. And Roxas didn't look like he was doing too well. He was breathing a little harder than normal and looked sorta pale.

"Roxas, are you alright?" Namine asked when she noticed what was going on with him.

"Uh, yeah." He said. When he got into his room he sat on his bed. Namine followed after and sat next to him.

"Roxas, why did you run off?" she asked him.

"I, I didn't think you were going to come back." He said as he looked away from her.

"Roxas…" she looked at him but he had his eyes closed with his head facing the ground and he was sweating a lot too. Then out of nowhere he fell over on her lap.

"Roxas?" she held on to him so he wouldn't roll of the bed. She sat him up on his pillows and when to go get Areth.

"Areth, I think Roxas is really sick, I think he has a fever."

"Oh I hoped this wouldn't happen. The beginning of winter is always flu season. Let me see him." Then they walked back to Roxas' room. Areth checked his temperature. He defiantly had a high fever.

"Oh dear, he's very sick. If only he hadn't of run off today."

"Can I stay with him tonight?" Namine pleaded.

"Of course, if it's alright with your parents though."

Then Namine went off to find a phone. She told her parents that the boy she takes care of got really sick and needs her there tonight. So they let her stay.

She went back to Roxas' room and put a cold cloth on his forehead. He was still breathing hard, and had a high fever, but at least Namine would be there by his side until he got better.

**-Dragon's blood**


	4. Cleaning Up Your Act

**Chapter four: Cleaning Up Your Act**

It was a cold and cloudy Saturday morning and Roxas slowly opened his eyes. He only had his eyes half way open as he looked around the room. All he remembered last night was coming back to the home and then just blacking out. He didn't recall ever falling onto Namine's lap. Or her putting him to bed.

He felt nice and warm. Not from his fever, which had gone down a little, but from the nice soft blankets and something else that was around him. He was lying on his side and noticed a hand resting on his arm. He then looked behind him to see Namine's face buried in his back. She had slept beside him the other night.

Roxas didn't freak out or try to wake her. He just looked at her. His brain not really functioning at this time. He had only just woken up and his eyes still were half open. Roxas had the blankets up to his chin. But Namine wasn't under the covers like he was. She had just slept next to him on top of the covers.

She was breathing slowly, Roxas knew this because he could feel her breathing against his back. He was still looking at her with half open eyes when hers opened slightly to see his bright blue eyes looking back at her. Namine's nose was almost toughing Roxas' cheek.

"Are you felling better?" she asked in a really quiet voice.

"Uh hu." He said, also very quietly.

"Let's just see." She slowly got up and walked over to the table then picked up the thermometer.

"Here, now open up." Namine held the thermometer in front of his mouth. But Roxas just pulled the covers over his head. He's never seen a thermometer and didn't know if it was something that would hurt him or not.

"Come on Roxas, it's just a thermometer, all I'm going do to is put it under your tong and let it take your temperature." Namine said in a calm-down like voice.

"Is that what it's for?" said Roxas as he took the covers off his head.

"Yeah, so now will you open up?" she held the thermometer in front of his mouth again. Roxas opened his mouth and she took his temperature. It was 101.

"Well, you're still sick. But it's not like I expected you to get better over night." She set the thermometer down and sat next to him.

"Hey, why did you sleep next to me last night?" Roxas asked her.

"Oh! Hehe, you were sorta having a fit in your sleep and you were talking too. Areth said you were doing it cuz your fever was so high. In your sleep you told me not to leave you, so I stayed. You calmed down after I lied next to you. Then I fell asleep."

Roxas sat up and rubbed the side of his head, mainly to hide the blush that was caused by Namine hearing that he asked her not to leave him in his sleep.

"Do you have a headache too?" she asked him. Becoming more worried about him.

"Yeah, I think I do." He said.

"Ok hold on, I'll get you an ice pack. I'll be right back." She got up and left the room to head to the medical center to get an ice pack. When she came back Roxas wasn't in his room.

"Oh now where did you run off to?" she was getting tired of always having to go look for him. Then she heard what sounded like puking in the bathroom down the hall. She walked down to the bathroom and knocked on the door.

"Roxas? Roxas are you in there?" she asked.

"Yeah…" then he started coughing. He came out and walked back to his room with Namine. She put him back to bed and put the ice pack on his forehead. She also placed some club soda and crackers on the table next to him as well as a puke pan in case he needed to hurl again.

Roxas soon fell asleep and Namine was about to leave his room, but then he started talking in his sleep again.

"Namine…don't leave…I don't want to be forgotten and left again…" he was trying to roll over on his side, but he was tucked in too tightly to roll over.

"Again Roxas?" so she lied down next to him again and he quieted down. Roxas was under the covers and Namine was on top of them. She then put one of her arms over him and placed her face on his shoulder and neck. She could hear his soft snoring, and then she fell asleep too.

Being the beginning if winter, it was starting to snow outside.

…………………………….

Roxas woke up and found Namine asleep beside him again. He figured he must have talked in his sleep again too. She was still in the same position as when she fell asleep. She had one arm over him and had her face resting in his neck and shoulder.

Roxas stretched out his legs and then gave a big yawn. He woke Namine up with his bad morning breath.

"Wow Roxas! You need to brush you teeth! You have really bad breath!" said Namine as she got up and waved her hand in front of her nose to try to get the smell to go away.

"Brush my teeth? With what?" Roxas has never used a toothbrush.

"You've got to be kidding me." She was surprised when he didn't know what she was talking about.

"No, what?"

"Well are you feeling better?" she asked him.

"Uh, yeah I am. My headache is gone and I don't feel like I'm gonna puke anymore." He said to her.

"Ok then, come with me." And she took him to the bathroom.

"Why did you take me in here?" he was confused.

"Hold on a sec." And she dug around in the bathroom for a spare toothbrush and toothpaste. "Ah! Found it!"

"What's that stuff for?" he asked.

"Ok what you do is this, you take some of this stuff, it's called toothpaste. Then you put just a little on this, the toothbrush." She demonstrated for him. "Then you brush your teeth with it."

"Ok…" he picked it up and tried to brush his teeth. But when he got a taste of that toothpaste he spit it out.

"Yuck! That's disgusting!" he said as he tried to spit the rest of the toothpaste out of his mouth.

"Roxas, you have to brush your teeth, your breath smells and your teeth might rot." She told him.

"But it tastes disgusting! I ain't gonna do it!" he folded his arms.

"Well if you put it that way…" she grabbed Roxas and shoved him to the ground and sat on his back while she forcefully brushed his teeth.

"Hey what are you - " he couldn't yell at her after she stuck the toothbrush in his mouth. When she was done, she let him up.

"See, now your breath smells so much better! But I wish I could say the same for your body odor right now."

"What? I smell fine." He said in defense.

"Oh no you don't. Go take a shower."

"No, I don't want to." He was being stubborn again.

"Take a shower."

"No."

"Take…a …shower." Namine said slowly.

"…nnnooooo." he said like a smart-ass.

"Take-a-shower!"

And then she walked out of the bathroom and locked the door on him.

"Wha? Namine let go of the door!" Namine had a hold on the doorknob from the other side.

"I'll let you out when you take a shower!" she called to him.

"Fine!" and he took a quick shower.

When Namine heard the water go off, she let go of the doorknob so he could come out. He had the towel around his waist and his hair looked slicked back when it was wet. It was no longer gravity deifying hair at the moment.

"Oh hey, if you want I could blow dry your hair for you."

"Do what with my hair?" he was still confused.

Then Namine took out a hair dryer and plugged it in and turned it on. Roxas just stared at it with fear.

"Y-you keep that thing away from me!"

"Alright, then how about we do something about your eye brows?" and she took out the tweezers.

Areth was reading the paper when she heard the sound of two people running down the hall. She looked up to see Roxas running down the hall in a towel with Namine right behind him chasing him with a pair of tweezers.

"Roxas get back here! I'm not done with you yet!" Namine called out.

"Ahh! Just get away from me!"

When Areth saw that, she just told herself that 'she didn't see anything' and went back to reading the paper.

**-Dragon's blood**


	5. Freedom Opportunity

**Chapter five: Freedom Opportunity **

The next day Namine came over to the home early because she was on winter break. So she was off school for two weeks. But Namine and Roxas soon became bored.

"Hey Roxas, what do you do for fun when I'm not around?" Namine asked him. He was lying on his bed with his head hanging off the end.

"I eat, take showers and then sleep. Some times I watch TV in the activity room or listen to the radio."

"Wow, that's exciting." She said sarcastically.

"Uhhh." Then he rolled off the bed and landed next to Namine. She just watched him as he hit the floor.

"Hey! I have an idea! How about we go down to the ice skating ring?" she said.

"I don't know how to skate." Roxas said, he hasn't moved at all from the position he landed in.

"Well I'll teach you. It's fun, you'll like it." Then she went to the closet and got some jackets for Roxas and herself.

------------------------------

When they got there it was surprising that not a lot of people were there. But that was just fine with Roxas. Namine rented some skates and help Roxas put his on. Then she led him out to the ring.

"Ok, it's real easy, it's almost like walking when you get used to it." She was holding his hands so he wouldn't fall.

"Whoa! This is way harder than it looks! Whoa!" he was slipping all over the place.

"It's ok, I wont let you fall." Namine said as she had a firm grip on his hands.

"H-hey, I think I'm starting to get the hang of this." Roxas said then he started to let go of her hand. "Whoa maybe not!" he was about to fall backwards but grabbed Namine's hands again.

"Hahaha!" she laughed at how silly he looked.

They were skating around for a while longer and Roxas did start to do better. He could go all the way around the ring without Namine's help. It was getting late and Namine said it was getting time to go back.

"Come on Roxas, its almost eleven. I bet the others back at the home are getting worried."

"But I- yeah, alright." The smile on his face turned to a let-down one.

On their way out of the park Namine noticed how sad he looked.

"Ya know Roxas, we can come back tomorrow." She tried to cheer him up.

"No it's not that it's just, err never mind." He looked down at the ground.

"What? Come on Roxas you can tell me anything."

"Well, I don't feel right when I'm in there. You know, the home. I just, I don't know." He didn't know how to explain himself without hurting Namine.

"Why wouldn't you feel right there? They take good care of you there for free." She said.

"I just can't take the feeling of, of…living by rules! And having to do what someone else says! Not being able to go where I want, when I want! I just can't take that!" he blurted out.

"W-what?" she was shocked by his sudden out burst.

"I'm just…not used to it. I lived by my own rules until I came to that shelter. I only stayed there so I could see you."

"Is seeing me really worth it to you? That you would stay in a place you hate?"

"For you, yeah."

They stopped walking and looked at each other. Namine walked over to him and hugged him. At first he was a little freaked, but then he hugged her back. They stood there for a few minutes then Namine let go. She took his hand and they walked back together.

…………………………………………………………….

It was just one more week until Christmas and every thing in the home was all Christmas-like. It was cheery. But Roxas wasn't as happy as all the other residents were. Namine would be there all day with him and they would go out to the ice skating ring, movies, get lunch, and go to the arcade. Which Roxas beat five of the high scores on the games.

He was happiest when he was going where he pleased with Namine. Namine knew he wasn't a control freak, just someone who wanted his freedom. But recently he has been staring out the window and zoning out.

Namine's parents told her that they would be getting a day off and would be taking her somewhere for a family outing. And this time Namine had time to tell Roxas about it. So he was going to be alone for a day. No big deal.

But the day Namine was suppose to be gone, Roxas couldn't go out because it was snowing a little more than usual. So, Roxas being Roxas, he hopped out the window.

No too many people were out due to the extra snow. When Roxas was walking down a street that had a lot of stores with the stuff they were advertising in the window, he was thinking about what he could get Namine for Christmas. He really badly wanted to get her something, but didn't know if he could. He had no munny.

Being bored with no munny, he went to the park. He visited the spot where he first meet Namine. The spot where he saved her that one night and got his ass kicked. He wished he could have a rematch but at the same time he didn't. He never wanted Namine to know but the entire time he was fighting her attackers, his heart was in his throat and his knees were shaking.

It was starting to get dark but he was having second thoughts about going back. But if he didn't go back he wouldn't see Namine tomorrow. He thought it over in his head.

'_Oh man I really don't wanna live at that place anymore. I hate taking what feels like orders from the volunteers. But Namine doesn't order me around. And if I don't go back I wont see her. So what do I want more? My freedom back, or Namine? Can't I have both though, can I? Well I can't ask her to come down to the park instead of doing her volunteering work. Man, my life has gotten so complicated ever since I meet Namine. But she's worth it.'_

He finally headed back around one in the morning. And Areth heard him coming in though his window.

"And where the bloody hell have you been?" she said as she folded her arms. He knew when she was really mad, because she _never_ swore unless she was truly upset.

"Oh I ah…ops." He was busted.

"Yeah, big 'ops'. Why were you gone so long?"

"…" he didn't want to tell her that he didn't want to live there anymore if it wasn't for Namine.

"Roxas sit down." Areth wanted to talk to him. She knew something was up because he was running off more often and staying out later and later.

"Ok, now what's really going on with you? No lies, tell me the truth. And who knows I could be able to help you." She took a seat next to him.

"I don't like living here." He said while looking at the ground. Roxas didn't want to make eye contact with her.

"Then why do you come back every time you run off?"

"…because Namine comes here to see me. And I like her company."

"Oh I see what's going on here. If Namine, your little girlfriend, didn't come here you would just hop out that window and never come back."

"Yeah, that's- hey she's not my girlfriend!"

"Ok, ok, but what can I do for you to try and make your stay here better?" Areth asked.

"If you want to make life here for me better, stop telling me what to do like if you were my mother." Roxas said.

"Oh sorry honey can't do. We need to make sure you'll be safe and do what you're supposed to."

"Exactly, that's why I hate it here!"

"Ok, ok, calm down. Well if you hate it here so much, you can leave." Said Areth.

"But Namine-"

"It's your decision. You can stay here and see Namine, or you could leave and live life the way you did before…without her and run wild with that gang of yours. It's your choice."

"I don't know what I want anymore…"

**-Dragon's blood**


	6. Back With The Gang

**Chapter Six: Back With The Gang**

Roxas was lying on the couch in the activity room watching the news with some of the other residents. He quickly got bored with it and went to his room. He wasn't sure what time Namine would be showing up today.

After spending about a half hour in his room listening to his radio he left to get something from the kitchen. On his way he saw Namine talking with Areth in the activity room. Namine saw Roxas looking at her and smiling, but she wasn't smiling back. Roxas stopped smiling and wondered what was wrong. Namine turned away from him to listen to the rest of what Areth was telling her. So Roxas just went back to his room.

He was listening to a song on the radio. It was "Too Bad" by Nickleback.

_Mothers hands were lined with dirt  
From long days in the field  
And mothers hands are serving meals  
In a cafe on this street  
With mouths to feed  
Just trying to keep clothing on our backs  
And all I hear about is  
How it's so bad, it's so bad_

Then Roxas heard a knock on the door.

"Yeah, you can come in." he said.

It was Namine. They just looked at each other for a minute before Namine broke the silence.

"Um, Areth told me about what you did and said last night." She watched him from the door. She hadn't come in yet.

"Oh, she did?" said Roxas. He was standing in front of the window.

_It's too bad, it's too bad  
Too late, so wrong, so long  
It's too bad that we had no time to rewind  
Let's walk, let's talk  
Let's talk_

"Roxas, if you hate this place so badly, Areth is right, you can leave. No body is going to stop you." She said. Then a tear rolled down her face.

"N-Namine, I don't want to leave. If I did, I wouldn't be able to see you."

"I know Roxas, but I also know that you would be happier if you had your freedom back." Another tear fell down her face. "I don't want to cause you any more pain, like what you had to go though when your mother left you here."

"Namine I'm happier with you. And I know you would never hurt me like that." He walked over to her to try and give her a hug. But she turned away from him.

"Roxas, I really thought about it and I realized that if I, if I really, l-love you, I'd let you go." Then she started quietly crying. Then she turned to face him but he was gone. She flopped herself on his bed and cried into his pillow. Smelling his sent on his pillow's made her cry more.

_You left without saying goodbye  
Although I'm sure you tried  
You call and ask from time to time  
To make sure we're alive  
But you weren't there  
Right when I'm needing you the most  
And now I dream about it  
How it's so bad, it's so bad_

Roxas poked his head back through the window and saw her crying on his bed. He felt horrible. But he knew that Namine wanted him to be happy and thought he'd be happy having his freedom by giving her up so he left. He whispered to her, but it was too quiet for her to hear.

_Father's hands are lined with guilt  
For tearing us apart  
Guess it turned out in the end  
Just look at where we are  
Made it up, still got clothing on our backs  
And now I scream about it  
How it's so bad, it's so bad_

"_Good-bye Namine, I love you too."_

_It's too bad, it's too bad  
Too late, so wrong, so long  
It's too bad that we had no time to rewind  
Let's walk, let's talk  
Let's talk_

……………………………………..

It was five days before Christmas. Roxas was avoiding all of the shopping areas because they were full of last minute Christmas shoppers.

"Hmm, I wonder how they're all doing, haven't seen them in forever." Roxas said to himself.

He remembered his old gang of friends. He had a little bit of a fight with them just before he met Namine. So he headed off to the other side of Twilight Town to see if they were in their 'usual spot.'

When he got there he stuck his head in the fence door and said "hello? Any body home?"

(A/N: just so I don't have to describe how this place looks, its basically just like Roxas', Hayner's, Pence's and Olette's usual spot in the game but a little bigger.)

"Wha? Who's there?" a voice answered.

"It's me, Roxas. I'm back." He walked in.

"Roxas? You're back!" then Axel jumped out from around the corner to see that it was really him.

"Axel!"

"Roxas!"

Then when Axel got over to Roxas he just smacked him up side the head. "Where the hell have you been for the last five months?" Axel put his hands on his hips.

"Ouch, did you have to hit me so hard?" Roxas rubbed his head. But Axel just raised his hand again threatening to hit him again.

"Ok, ok, well…I was at the…" Roxas was half afraid and half embarrassed to tell him that he had been at the homeless shelter with a girl. Then another of his friends walked into the room.

"Hey, do I hear who I think I hear?" then Demyx came into the room. "Ah! It's the kid! He came back! Hey, Larxene! Roxas came back! He didn't die! Hey, you owe me twenty bucks!" then he left the room.

"Oh that's bullshit Demyx, your just crying wolf again aren't you?" then she came into the room as well to see Roxas standing next to Axel.

"Holy flying monkeys! It's the baby! It came back!" then she ran over and gave Roxas' head a bear hug.

"Larxene, Larxene! Choking, not breathing." Axel said.

"Oh! Sorry." Then she let go of his head.

"Hey, why do you all think I died?" Roxas asked.

"Well, we spent the last six months-" Larxene started.

"Five months." Axel interrupted.

"-five months! Looking for you all over town!" continued Larxene. "Where were you!" she was now asking.

"Eh, nowhere." Roxas looked at the ground.

Axel and Larxene looked at each other then said at the same time-

"Grab him."

Roxas tried to turn and run but Axel threw him to the ground and sat on him and pined his arms to the ground as well. Then Axel let a line of droll hang from his mouth right over Roxas' face.

"No Axel! Please no!" Roxas was struggling to get up.

"If you struggle too much, Axel might not be able to keep a hold of his droll." Larxene said. "So if I were you, I'd tell us where you were all this time before it hits your cute little face."

"Alright! I was at the homeless shelter!" he blurted out.

Axel sucked his spit back up so fast, he started coughing on it as he got off Roxas.

"You were _where_? At that _homeless shelter_? But why? You have a home. It's right here with us." Axel said.

"I know but I, I meet this girl and…" Roxas started to say.

"Oh, I know where this is going. Roxas has a girlfriend!" Larxene teased.

"I do not!" he protested.

"So tell us, why were you there so long?" Axel asked.

"Ok, it happened like this…" and then Roxas told the two everything. How he rescued Namine and got injured while doing that so he was brought back there, then got to know her and then got very attached. Then she left for three weeks and how he almost ran off for good because he thought she ditched him. Then he got sick and she took care of him. And how they would go out together and do all sorts of stuff. And how she let him go after she noticed how much he wanted his freedom back.

"Aw, Roxas that's so sweet. Too bad though, she sounds real nice." Larxene said.

"Yeah…I miss her a lot already. But I'm really happy to see all of you guys again." Roxas said.

"Ya know, it's alright with us if you went to see her for Christmas, right Axel?" Larxene said, poking Axel in the arm with her elbow.

"Yeah it's cool with me, just make sure you come back before we think you died again." Said Axel.

"Hey, how long were you guys looking for me before you gave up and said I was dead?" asked Roxas.

"Oh not too long…" said Axel. Then Larxene hit him in the arm. "Ouch! I mean, we were looking for you for uh, three months before we gave up." Then she hit him again. "I mean we never gave up!" Axel held his fist up in the air in an inspirational way.

"Sure whatever, but what am I gonna get Namine for Christmas?" Roxas asked.

"Well, I'm sure we could get some munny together for you to get her something." Larxene said.

"Really? Thanks you guys!" Roxas said happily.

"I also got another idea you could do for her. Come here.." then Larxene whispered something in his ear.

"No! There's no way I'm doing that!" Roxas said.

"Come on Roxas, she'll love you to death if you do, and plus, I bet you would be really good at it!" Larxene told him. "That's what I always wished a boy would do for me…" then she started daydreaming.

Axel just looked at Roxas with confusion.

"Ok, I'll do it, only if you're sure it will work."

**-Dragon's blood**


	7. Christmas Miracle

**Chapter Seven:**

It was Christmas eve and Roxas was running out of time to find a gift for Namine. His group of friends had gathered up just enough munny for a descent present. But he had no idea what she would like. He didn't know what her favorite music band was so he couldn't get her some CD's. He also didn't know her favorite movie or TV show. And nether did he know what kind of animal she liked incase he decided to get her a stuffed animal.

"Crap, for someone I really love, I know little about her. Come on Roxas think!" he said to himself. And before he knew it, all the shops were closing for Christmas eve.

"Ah, damn it! Now what am I gonna do?" Roxas said as he walked off and kicked a rock as he went.

He walked back into his 'usual spot' where his gang lived. They were practically his family. Luxord was playing a game of cards with Lexaeus, Zexion was listening to angsty music, Xaldin and Marluxia were sparing together, Larxene was throwing daggers at Demyx while yelling, "Get out of my room you pervert!". Vexen and Xigbar were in the back shooting at the crows that were annoying them with their squawking.

"'_Ha, life hasn't changed a bit around here since I left. Hmm, where's Axel?_" Roxas thought to himself.

Then Roxas saw Axel and Saix walk out of Xemnas's back room, which no one was allowed to enter unless Xemnas wished it. He was the gang's leader. Axel had a very serious look on his face. And so did Saix, but he always had a serious look. Then Roxas went over to Axel.

"Hi Axel, I'm back. Hey what did Xemnas want?" he asked him.

"Oh nothing important. So did you get a gift for your Namine person?" Axel said, trying to change the subject.

"About that, well you see, I took so long to decide on a present that the shops closed. Now I don't have a gift." Roxas said in a sad voice.

"Sorry buddy. I wish there was something I could do for ya." Axel said.

"I know what you could do!" Larxene overheard the conversation between Axel and Roxas.

"You always have an answer to everything don't you?" Axel said to her.

But Larxene just stuck her tongue out at him.

"Why don't you give her something of yours that means value to you? So in a way you'll always be together. I bet she'll treasure it more than any other gift you would have bought in a store." She told him.

"But I don't have anything of value." Roxas said.

"Of course you do! Just think on it. Christmas isn't until tomorrow." Then she went off to her room.

"Do you know what she's talking about Axel?" Roxas asked him.

"Beats me. But you better figure out whatever she means by tomorrow." He said to him.

"Oh thanks, you're a big help." He said sarcastically.

It was late so Roxas just decided to go to bed. His room was just as he left it. There was nothing but a mattress on the floor with a rag like blanket on top and a small round table next to it. His room was very dark. Their "home" had no electricity so the only light they got was from the sun or candles. And Roxas' window was covered in a layer of dirt so it had a gloomy look during the day, and at night it was pitch back. The walls were made of old bricks. They were probably older than Twilight Town itself.

"What did Larxene mean? I have nothing, she knows that. I know that…"

Roxas sat there on his bed in the dark thinking about what Larxene said. Then he started fiddling with his small chain necklace with a key shaped pendant that his mother had given him before she left. Then it hit him.

"That's what Larxene meant!" he said to himself.

And eventually sleep overtook him.

…………………………

It was Christmas morning! But if you saw the gang, you would have thought someone died. They all were a kind of emo group. Especially Zexion and Siax. Most of them were still asleep, Roxas being one of them.

"Hey, is the kid still asleep?" Axel asked Demyx.

"Well I haven't seen the little squirt yet, so he must be." Demyx told him.

Axel went into Roxas's room to check on him. He saw him curled up in the corner of his bed. If you even wanted to call it a bed…with his rag like blanket covering his legs. Axel walked over to him then poked him with his foot.

"Hey, Roxas get up dude. It's Christmas! Roxas?" Axel was saying as he noticed that Roxas wasn't waking up. Then Axel knelt down next to him and shook his shoulder.

Then Roxas lunged up at Axel and got him in a headlock. Then they started wrestling in Roxas' room then rolled out into the main room where most of everyone was.

"Hey! Watch it!" said Lexaeus.

"Be careful! You almost knocked the table over!" yelled Luxord.

Then Axel slammed Roxas into the old couch and pinned him there.

"Hey I want a piece of that!" Demyx said as he jumped Axel, then all three of them were now ruff housing

"_**Silence**_!" Xemnas yelled from his room.

All three of them stopped in mid attack to look in Xemnas' direction. Then they got off the ground.

"Kill joy…" muttered Demyx. Axel and Roxas were still quietly laughing.

"So it's Christmas, the day you're finally going to see Namine. You better clean up before you go." Axel said to Roxas.

"Clean up? Like how? I look fine!" he said.

"You obviously know nothing about how to present yourself to the ladies." Axel said, rolling his eyes.

"And you would?" Roxas asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No, but I'm sure Larxene would. I mean she's the only girl here. And for a street girl, she's got class." Then they went to see if Larxene was awake.

"Larxene, Larxene? You wake yet?" Axel pounded on her door.

"No! Go away!" she said from the other side of the door.

"Ah come on Larxene, I need your help." Roxas said.

Larxene came out and hit Axel in the face as soon as the door opened.

"Hey! why didn't you hit Roxas too!" he said from the floor.

"Because he's shorter and not as easy to punch as you are." She said in a death tone. "What do you need help with?"

"His girl problem." Axel said as he got off the floor. Larxene stared at Roxas for about two silent minutes then said-

"Take a shower, brush your teeth, put some deodorant on, brush your hair, and clean your clothes." Then she slammed the door in their faces.

"Shower! Let's go!" then Axel grabbed Roxas by the back of his shirt collar because he knew he would run off at the mention of the word 'shower'.

Axel stood outside the bathroom waiting for Roxas to finish up. And the entire time he heard- "It's cold! It's cold!" said Roxas from the shower. The gang's usual spot didn't have hot water. They were lucky to even get water. The Town forgot to turn their water off. It was basically an ignored spot of Twilight Town.

When he was done Axel helped him with his hair and teeth.

"No, you need more tooth paste." Axel said.

"But Namine said you only need this much." Roxas said.

"Yeah, well your breath stinks worse than a dog's." Axel told him.

"Why you-" then Axel shoved the toothbrush into Roxas mouth. And he brushed his teeth.

_back at the homeless shelter for Christmas_

Namine was staring out the window at the snow. Night had just fallen. So the light from the room shined though the window onto the bright white snow outside. All of the residents got a present from the Town's donated munny.

Namine was there because her parents were gone yet again on a business trip. But she really liked it there. Except for Roxas not being there anymore. But she was happy about the thought that he was back out where he liked it best. She knew he would eventually forget about her and move on. But she didn't know how wrong she was.

She left the window to go to Roxas' old room. When she got there she sat on his bed and looked around the room. She laid down on the bed and closed her eyes.

Roxas came through the front gates of the shelter. Then Areth saw him from the front window when she was passing by it. She watched him walk around to his old room in silence. She didn't go out there to stop him because she knew why he came back. She just smiled to herself.

'_This really is a Christmas miracle._' She thought to herself. She was honestly surprised he came back.

Roxas came around to his old bedroom window and looked in. He saw Namine sitting on his bed. But then she got up and left to go to her room that the shelter gave her for when she spent the night. Roxas followed her from outside without her knowing. When she got to her room she sat on her bed and laid down.

"Ok Roxas, now or never…I just hope I can do this." He said to himself. Then he picked up a pebble and tossed it at her window. She got up to see what the noise was. She saw Roxas standing in the bright snow outside her window that was lit up by the light from the room shining out the window.

'_Roxas…'_ she opened her window.

"Namine…" he said to her.

She had the biggest smile on her face at the sight of him outside her window. Roxas made a sighing noise and then started to sing for her…

"I don't want another pretty face

I don't want just anyone to hold

I don't want my love to go to waste

I want you and your beautiful soul

You're the one I wanna chase

You're the one I wanna hold

I wont let another minute go to waste

I want you and your beautiful soul

I know that you are something special

To you I'd be always faithful

I want to be what you always needed

Then I hope you'll see the heart in me

I don't want another pretty face

I don't want just anyone to hold

I don't want my love to go to waste

I want you and your beautiful soul

You're the one I wanna chase

You're the one I wanna hold

I wont let another minute go to waste

I want you and your beautiful soul

Your beautiful soul, yeah

You might need time to think it over

But I'm just fine moving forward

I'll ease your mind

If you give me the chance

I will never make you cry cmon lets try

I don't want another pretty face

I don't want just anyone to hold

I don't want my love to go to waste

I want you and your beautiful soul

You're the one I wanna chase

You're the one I wanna hold

I wont let another minute go to waste

I want you and your beautiful soul

Am I crazy for wanting you

Baby do you think you could want me too

I don't wanna waste your time

Do you see things the way I do

I just wanna know if you feel it too

There is nothing left to hide

I don't want another pretty face

I don't want just anyone to hold

I don't want my love to go to waste

I want you and your beautiful soul

You're the one I wanna chase

You're the one I wanna hold

I wont let another minute go to waste

I want you and your beautiful soul

You beautiful soul, yeah"

He finished up his long song for her.

"…Roxas…did that song really mean how you feel?" Namine asked him.

"Of course it does. I love you Namine." He started walking towards her window. She opened the window all the way so he could come in. It was really cold outside.

As soon as he got in Namine jumped him in a hug and just held onto him while crying tears of joy. "I love you too Roxas."

He hugged her back and they stood there for a while then she let go of him and they sat on her bed. Then Roxas took off his necklace with the key pendent and slipped it over Namine's head.

"What's this?" she asked.

"I know it's not much, but it's your Christmas gift. It's really special to me, so I hope it makes it all the more special to you." Roxas said quietly to her.

Then she looked up at him and gave him a kiss. Roxas' eyes widened and he turned red in the face at first, but then relaxed and kissed her back. She leaned on his shoulder for a little while then they laid down together on her bed and fell asleep. Just before they were completely asleep Namine whispered to Roxas -

"Merry Christmas Roxas, I love you too."

**I had him sing that song because ****Jesse McCartney does the voice for Roxas, as I'm sure you all already know.**

**-Dragon's blood**


	8. An Encounter With Superior

**Chapter Eight: An Encounter With Superior **

It was morning and Namine was starting to wake up. When she opened her eyes she looked around for Roxas. Because she just wanted to bury her face in his chest and fall back asleep. But she couldn't find him. She lifted up the pillows and looked under the sheets.

"Where did you go now? Or was it all just a dream?" she said to herself. When she put her feet on the floor she felt something warm and soft. And it made noises! She looked down to see Roxas on the floor.

"Oh! There you are! Good morning!" Namine said to him. Her feet still resting on his stomach.

He just stared up at her with half open eyes. Then his stomach started growling because he was hungry. Namine felt his stomach growl from under her feet.

"Come on, let's get some breakfast." She said as she got her feet off him and helped him up. "How come you were on the floor?" Namine asked Roxas when they were on their way to the kitchen.

"I donno, must of fallen off sometime last night." He said with a tired voice.

"And you didn't wake up?"

"I'm a heavy sleeper."

"Obviously."

When they walked into the kitchen, Areth was busy making eggs, bacon and hash browns. She looked over and saw Roxas and Namine. She didn't get to give Roxas a proper welcoming back from last night.

"Roxas! So glad you wanted to come back! We all missed you so much!" Areth said as she went over to him and gave him a big suffocating hug. Roxas started waving his arms around because he couldn't breath.

"Areth, I don't think he's breathing." Namine said as she saw him struggling to get away.

"Oh, sorry about that." She said. Roxas was gasping for air.

"It's…good to see you too…Areth." He said in between gasps.

"Well I'm almost done with breakfast. Would you two like to help me?" Areth asked.

"Uh, no that-" Roxas started, but then Namine cut him off.

"Of course! We'd love to help!" she said.

Then Roxas finished his sentence quietly, "…wouldn't be such a good idea…" but then he followed Namine over to the stove to finish up the bacon.

"Look Roxas, all you have to do is flip the bacon when the edges start to bubble." She instructed him. Then she handed him a fork to flip the bacon with. Then she went over to another stove to cook some more bacon for the rest of the home.

"Hmm, is it ready to be flipped now? No, I should wait a little longer…" he had never cooked anything before. Then the pan with the bacon started to smoke a little bit. "Oh no! I waited too long!" then he tried to get the fork under them to flip them. But they were stuck to the pan.

"Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap." Roxas was saying as the bacon started to smoke more then caught fire. "Shit!" he yelled. The flames got Namine's attention. Then the fire alarm went off and the little water sprinklers on the ceiling went off too. So the whole kitchen was wet. And the food was ruined.

Everybody was running around and slipping on the wet floor. And so did Roxas. So he just sat on the floor with his wet hair covering his eyes and a pot over his head like an oversized hat while everyone else ran around in a panic. Eventually Areth shut off the alarm and the water as well.

"Roxas are you alright- whoa!" Namine said as she slid across the floor and towards Roxas. He saw her coming and caught her so she wouldn't crash into him.

"Whoa! Got cha." He said as he caught her. When she slid into him, she pushed him against the wall that was right behind him. She looked up at him and smiled. But then she looked at him with a look that meant she wanted to know what happened. Because she knew it was Roxas' fault the alarm and water went off.

"Ok, what did you do? How could you screw up bacon? That's almost impossible to do unless you totally forget about it." She said to him.

"I can't cook to save my life ok! I didn't volunteer to do the cooking!" he said in his defense. Then Areth came over to him.

"Roxas, I love ya boy, but you are never allowed in the kitchen again." She said, as she was all wet, just like everyone else in the kitchen that was giving him dirty looks.

Namine just looked up at Roxas and started laughing. She then rested her head on his chest and her laughing turned to giggling. He smiled and hugged her as she was sitting on his lap. She still hasn't moved from the spot that Roxas had caught her in. They got up and left the kitchen to dry off. Then they went outside to walk around.

"Hey Roxas, where were you the entire time you were gone? You must have somewhere you go." Namine said.

"Yeah, I actually have a lot of other friends who live on the streets. They're like family to me. Would you like to meet them someday? I'm sure they would like you. I've told them about you actually." He told her.

"Really? You never told me that you had other friends out there. So when can I meet them?" she asked.

"Anytime. There's always someone in our 'usual spot'." Roxas told her.

"Ok, could we go…now?" she asked.

"Sure, let's go meet the gang."

Then Roxas took Namine over to the usual spot to meet his group of friends.

…………………………………………….

Back at the usual spot, only half of the gang was there. The one's who were there were Larxene, Zexion, Demyx, Xigbar, and Axel. And they were all extremely bored. Axel and Demyx were lying on their backs on the old couch with one arm hanging off.

"Dude…I'm bored…" Demyx whined.

"Well 'dude' I'm hungry!" Axel said back.

"Shut up! We're all hungry. That's why the rest of the gang went out. So quit your bitching." Xigbar said. He was leaning against the wall next to the back door.

Then there was a knock at the front door.

"Ah! The foods here!" Demyx said as he jumped off the couch and opened the door. But it was just Roxas and Namine.

"Aw, it's just Roxas and a girl…" he then walked back to the couch in a slump.

"Roxas brought back a girl!" Zexion said will surprise in his voice.

"Is it Namine?" Larxene said as she walked over to the door.

"What? Namine? Hey let me see her!" Axel got off the couch and went over to the door as well.

In no time everyone occupying the little 'house' was swarming at the door to try to get a look at Namine. And for the first time in Namine's life, she was hiding behind someone's back because she was nervous and shy.

"Namine, it's ok you don't need to be nervous of these guys." Roxas said as he moved over to the side so the gang could see her.

"Uh…hi." She whispered.

"Hey! Come on in." said Larxene as she placed her hand on Namine's back and lead her into their home.

After the group that was there at the moment got to see and meet her, Roxas took her off to see the small house he lived in. Then eventually took her into his room.

"Well this is my real room. Not much I know." He said.

"Wow, this is all you have hu?" Namine said as she took a look around his room. There was only a mattress on the floor with a rag like blanket for a sheet. And there was a small dirty table next to the so-called bed. The window was filthy. So the only light the room got was a dim and gloomy one.

Roxas sat down on his bed and Namine took a set next to him.

"This bed is really hard. How can you sleep on this thing at night?" she asked him.

"Like I said, I'm a really hard sleeper."

"You must be."

Then the sound of someone coming through the front door meet their ears.

"Hey, I think the rest of the gang is home. And I think they got food!" Roxas said as he got to his feet and then they both went out to see what they brought back.

Luxord was the first through the door and he was holding two 12 packs of beer. Then Lexaeus came in with a few packages of meat. Marluxia had some bags of fruit and Saix had the vegetables. Vexen and Xaldin were holding supplies like matches, medical stuff, some more blankets, batteries, flashlights, and safety pins.

"Hey would ya look at this, Roxas brought himself back a little girlfriend." Xaldin said as he went over to take a better look at Namine.

"So are you the Namine we all heard so much about?" Luxord said. "My name is Luxord, any friend of Roxas is a friend to us. Right guys?" he said as he offered Namine his hand. She took his hand.

"It's very nice to meet you all too." She said as she looked around at them. Roxas went over to Axel.

"Hey Axel, where is Xemnas? Did he go out too?" he asked.

"Yeah he did. I don't know where he is though." Said Axel. But then Xemnas came through the door.

Everyone stopped what they were doing to look at him. Xemnas just walked through the room, not looking at anyone but straight ahead at where he was going. And he was walking right towards Roxas.

"Uh…hi sir." Roxas said. Then Xemnas took Roxas by the shoulder and lead him into his room. Roxas has never been back there before.

He sat him down in a chair. The room was quite dark. There was no window. Just a candle on the large table in the center on the room. Then Xemnas turned around to face him.

"Roxas, so I've heard that you have been spending much of your time at that homeless shelter. Is this true?" Xemnas asked.

"Yes it is sir." Roxas gave short and to the point answers.

"Why is that? Because that girl, Namine, spends her time there as well?"

"…Yes sir, that's right." He answered.

"Roxas, are you aware of our situation within the family?" said Xemnas.

"'Situation' sir?" Roxas did not know what he was talking about.

"It is becoming harder and harder to get what we need to get by. It is becoming harder to get munny. It is also harder to get food. And now, other rival gangs who are in constant war with us are trying to take over our home here."

Roxas just listened to him without interruption.

"Now let's say that we found a regular source of munny. We would be able to get better food and get what we need without steeling it."

"But sir, we would be stealing the munny." Roxas said.

"No boy, we would be borrowing it."

"Oh, ok." He still thought it was stealing. But he did what was needed of him to help his 'family' get by.

"That shelter you stay at, they trust you right?" Xemnas asked.

"…Yeah." Roxas didn't like where this was going. But he listened anyway.

"And that girl's parents are regular donators to that place, are they not?"

"Yes sir, they are." He answered.

"Good, so you are close to that girl and the shelter. They both have more munny than they know what to do with. So why don't you 'borrow' some of that munny and give it to us. We can make better use of it."

"But sir I can't!" Roxas blurted out. He would never steal from Namine or the shelter which had given him a bed, medical treatment, food and love.

"Roxas, it would be in your best interest to get that munny for us. It wouldn't only help us, but it would help you too. Also if you don't somehow get that munny I fear something horrible might happen to your Namine." Xemnas said with his back turned to Roxas.

"…Yes sir." Roxas growled at him. He knew if he didn't do as he wished, he had the power to take all that was dear to him. And the only thing he had to lose was Namine.

"You are excused. I expect to see that munny within a week." Xemnas said.

Then Roxas left Xemnas' room and saw Namine sitting on the couch with Larxene. They were talking about something girlish when Roxas walked over and sat next to Namine. He kept his eyes on the floor.

"Roxas, are you ok?" Namine asked.

"Uh, I'll just leave you two alone." Larxene said as she went off to annoy Axel and Demyx who were getting drunk off the beer that Luxord brought back.

"Namine…do you want to go back home now?" he asked.

"Sure Roxas." She didn't want to quite leave yet. She was just getting to know the group. But she could tell that Roxas was uncomfortable about something.

When they got outside it was starting to get dark. Then Namine came up with an idea.

"Hey Roxas, why don't we go to my house tonight? I've never taken you there before have I?" she offered.

"Oh, ok. If that's ok with you." He said.

"Of course it is! My parents aren't home. Like that's a big surprise..." She said.

So they headed towards her house.

**-Dragon's blood**


	9. Time For Fun

**Chapter Nine: Time For Fun**

Roxas and Namine came up to her front gates to her house, which was on one of the highest hills of Twilight Town. Even the gates made Roxas' jaw drop. They were twelve feet high black gates. She punched in a code next to the gates and they opened.

When they walked up to her house Roxas was shocked at how huge her house was. It was a mansion. He was zoning out on the sight of it. Then Namine hit him in the side of his face with a snowball.

"Haha! I got you!" she said.

"Oh yeah? Take this." Roxas said as he quickly made a snowball and chucked it at Namine and got her in the shoulder.

They laughed while playing their snowball fight. Roxas started chasing her around the yard and getting her in the back with snowballs. He was winning the war so far. She hid behind a tree, Roxas then came around the tree and held a snowball above her head.

"Wait, I give, I give!" she said as she held her hands up signaling she was surrendering.

He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close to him as they walked towards her house. She then smashed a snowball on top of Roxas' head that she was hiding behind her back and ran off as he picked up some more snowballs and continued chasing her around.

She ran around the house and into the large stable that they kept horses in. And Roxas was right behind her. She ran into an empty stall then Roxas caught her and pulled her down with him onto a pile of hay in the corner of the stall. They were both still laughing a lot.

When they finally stopped laughing, Roxas leaned over and kissed her on the head and then started nuzzling her face and neck. She smiled back and started giving him little kisses all over his face. Then after a little while she got up and so did he. They started walking back to the front of the house and went in.

"Hey Roxas are you hungry?" Namine asked him.

"Come to think of it, I am. What kind of food do you got around here?" he said.

"Well let's go into the kitchen and see what I have."

They walked into the huge kitchen and started going though the cabinets and refrigerator.

"Wow, you sure got a lot of stuff that looks good." Roxas said.

"You can go ahead help yourself to anything you want." She said.

"Ok then." He started going through one of her cabinets. And before you knew it Namine was yelling stuff like- "That's not eatable!", "you can't eat that!" and "hey! Get that out of your mouth!"

After a while they decided to just make some popcorn and watch a movie. They sat down on the large and fluffy armchair that was so big two people could comfortably sit on it. So Namine and Roxas were snuggled up close to each other. They feed each other popcorn as they watched _'V for Vendetta'_ together.

Towards the end of the movie, Namine fell asleep as it was getting close to 12:30. Namine was using Roxas' chest as a pillow and he rested his chin on top of her head. He had his arms wrapped around her and he held her close. He leaned over to grab the soft blanket on the couch next to them.

He then placed it over himself and Namine, he too fell asleep soon afterwards.

………………………………………………………………………

In the morning Namine was woken up by Roxas' extremely loud snoring. She sat up and just placed a pillow over his face. But it didn't help much. She smiled to herself and got off the armchair to find something for breakfast.

"Hmm, I think I can make some waffles. Do I have everything I need to make them?" Namine said to herself. Then started looking around for some eggs, milk and pancake mix.

Roxas finally started to wake up to the smell of waffles baking. He walked into the kitchen to see a big mess of pancake mix all over the cooking table and Namine trying to clean it up. He walked over to help her out.

"Hey, wanna hand with that?" he said.

"Whoa! Roxas you scared me! Uh, yeah I could use some help. But just with the cleaning part, I don't want you screwing up like you did back at the kitchen in the home." Said Namine.

"Oh haha, very funny." Then Roxas help her out with the mess. After he was done with that, Roxas asked to use the bathroom.

"Ok, you just go up the stairs here then go right down the hall and it's the second door to the left. Got that?" Namine directed him.

"Yeah I think so." And then Roxas headed up the stairs. But instead of going right down the hall, he went left. And wound up going into a very large bedroom. Which obviously belonged to Namine's parents.

He took a look around. The room was huge! The walls, carpet, bed, and curtains were all white. '_Wrong room…'_ Roxas thought to himself. But he couldn't help but to go over to the closet door and open it. It was one of those walk-in closets with the whole wardrobe hanging across the walls. But then Roxas notices a large jewelry box in the back.

When he opened it, it had to have had millions of dollars worth of jewels in it. Roxas just stared at them in awe. Just a hand full of this would be more than enough for Xemnas. But Roxas couldn't bring himself to do it.

'_No, there's no way I could ever steel from Namine. I'll just have to get it somewhere else!'_ he said to himself. He left the closet and was walking towards the door to leave the room. Then he saw Namine in the doorway.

"Roxas what are you doing in here?" she asked.

"Oh! Sorry I must have gotten lost." Roxas said.

She showed him were the bathroom was then they both went down stairs to eat the waffles that Namine had made. And just as they finished them up there was a knock at the door.

"I'll get that." Namine said as she got up from the table. Roxas picked up the dishes. Namine opened up the door to see Axel.

"Oh hi Axel, good to see you! Do you need something?" she asked.

"Yes in fact I do, is Roxas here with you at the moment?" Axel asked.

"Yeah he is, I'll go get him for you, would you like to come in?"

"No thanks I just need to tell him something then I'll be on my way." Axel told her.

Then she went to go get Roxas. He was in the kitchen putting away the dishes.

"Thank you for doing that for me Roxas! And that was Axel at the door, he wants to tell you something." Namine said to him.

"Oh really? Ok I'll go see what he wants." Then Roxas headed for the front door. "Hey Axel, what's up?"

"Hey, Xemnas told me to tell you something, but I have no idea what he means by this so I hope you do, he said 'thing's have changed and I need it within two days' what's that all about?" Axel said.

Roxas just stood there in the door with his face going white. _'Oh shit…'_ he thought to himself.

"Roxas…?" Axel waved a hand in front of his face.

"Thanks Axel, well sorry you have to leave so soon! Bye!" Roxas said really fast and slammed the door closed.

"You welcome…" and he left.

Roxas was walking in circles in the living room deep in thought when Namine came in.

"So what did Axel want to tell you?" she asked. He didn't hear her, he was too deep in his thoughts. "Roxas? Roxas!" she yelled his name.

"Oh, Namine. W-what did you say again?" he said with a little bit of a shaken voice.

"Roxas is everything alright?" she was worried about him.

"No, I mean yes! Everything is fine!" he said to her.

"Then what did Axel say?" asked Namine. She knew what Axel had said had gotten to him.

"Nothing important. He just uh, wanted to brag to me about something." Roxas said as he was starting to zone out again. _'How did Xemnas know where I was?'_ he thought to himself. _'Great, he knows where Namine lives.'_

"Hey, how about we go back to the home now?" Roxas asked.

"Ok, if you wanna go back now." Then she got her jacket and they walked back to the home together.

The whole way there Roxas was in his own little world_. 'There is no way I could ever steel from Namine, so my only choice would be to get the munny from the shelter. And in only two days! What could have come up so that Xemnas would want the munny sooner?'_ he was pondering the whole way there.

When they got there Areth gave them a big warm welcoming hug.

"I'm so happy to see you two!" she said.

"You too." Roxas said. He then went to his room.

"What happened to him?" Areth asked.

"I don't know. Ever since one of his friends came to my house to tell him something he's been acting like this." She said. She followed him into his room.

"Roxas? I know there's something wrong. I want to try and help you, but I have to know what's wrong first." Namine said.

"Nothing is wrong, really. I just feel a little off is all." He said.

"You could have just said 'I don't want to talk about it right now.' It's ok, I know there's something bugging you but I won't push you to say it." Namine said.

She sat down next to him on this bed. He looked at her with a half smile. Trying to lighten up the mood. He didn't want to make her worry about his problems. She leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Then he really did smile to her.

"I just want to know that you know that I love you and I'd do anything to help you right?" Namine said.

"Yeah, I know. And I love you too." He kissed her back.

'_If you only you knew that I was trying to protect you. If I don't get this munny in two days, we're both in big trouble. How am I going to do this alone?'_

……………………………………………….

Roxas opened his eyes to look around his empty room. He was still very sleepy so he rolled over to go back to sleep. Namine had left the other night to go back home because she had school the next day. Winter break was over for the school kids. Roxas didn't go to school because he was never signed up for school. He has no legal guardian to sign him up for school.

Roxas fell back asleep for three more hours. When he finally woke back up it was around 11:30am. He crawled out of bed to get some late breakfast, hoping there was some left. When he got out into the activity room he saw Areth reading the newspaper like she always would in the morning. She looked up to see Roxas.

"Good morning Roxas, slept in I see. I saved you some pancakes in the kitchen." She said then went back to the paper.

Roxas walked into the kitchen to find those pancakes. He couldn't see very well because he had just woken up and his eyes weren't completely open yet. He just walked around like a zombie in the morning. He got his pancakes, ate them then watched TV in the activity room.

He soon fell asleep on the couch, the news was too boring for him. About an hour and a half later Namine came over. She saw him sleeping on the couch and walked over to him. She took some of her hair and tickled his nose with it. He sneezed.

"Hahaha! You sound so cute when you sneeze." Namine said. She was crouched down in front of Roxas.

"…don't call me cute." He said, then he ruffled up her hair.

"Hey! Do you know how long I spent on that this morning?" she said in annoyance as she tried to make it neat again.

"Hehe, you look so cute when I annoy you." Said Roxas.

"Cute? I'll give you cute." She said as she jumped on him and they started ruff housing together and rolling around on the couch. Roxas was of course being gentle with her.

"Oh come on Roxas your not even trying." Namine said.

"Ok, if you really want me to wrestle for real." Said Roxas, he then got her in a headlock and waited for her to give up.

"Ok! Ok! Let go, I give!" she said.

Roxas let her go. But then she jumped on him again and started to tickle him in his most ticklish areas, which were his sides and feet. He was laughing uncontrollably. Then he went for her ticklish spots. Her sides, neck and stomach. They both eventually stopped because they got tired enough.

"Hey Roxas, do you wanna go somewhere today?" Namine asked.

"Sure, got some place in mind?"

"Well how about we go to your friends hang out?" she asked.

"No! I mean no, their kinda busy with uh, remodeling right now. They told me not to come back for about three days." Roxas said.

"Oh ok, hey I know what we can do! How about we go ride bikes around town? Ya know, get some exercise." She suggested.

"Yeah that sounds fun, but where are we going to get bikes?" asked Roxas.

"I have a few at my house we could use." Namine said.

"Ok let's go."

So they headed over to Namine's house to get some bikes to ride around town. On their way there Roxas asked Namine something.

"So how exactly do you ride a bike?" he asked.

"You don't know?" Namine said with surprise in her voice.

"Nope."

"Well I'll show you when we get there."

And soon enough they were at Namine's house. She went around the back and came back with two bikes. One blue and the other was white. She gave the blue one to Roxas to ride. He tried to ride it but instead just took a nasty fall down the hill next to Namine's house. She helped him up then took him into her house to patch him up. He had some pretty bad cuts, scrapes, and burses.

"Your lucky you just missed the cactus. Now that would have been bad!" Namine said trying to make Roxas' ego feel better from that fall he took down the hill.

"…neh." Was all Roxas wanted to say.

"Ok so maybe bike riding wasn't the best idea. Do you want to play some video games?" she asked.

"Video games? Sure!" he said.

Namine got the game set up. They were playing Smash Brothers Melee. Roxas was playing as Fox and Namine's character was Zelda. They were on the same team of course. And Roxas surprisingly kicked ass with video games even though he had never played them before. He was a quick learner.

They were playing for hours. Then it soon got dark without their knowing. When they were done playing video games, Namine looked outside to see nothing but darkness.

"Oh great, we played the whole day away." Roxas said.

"Yeah, well it's way too dark for you to go back to the home. So I guess your staying with me tonight. I'll go call Areth and tell her so she won't worry." Namine said as she went to the phone.

When she came back into the room that Roxas was in, he was sprawled out on the floor sleeping. She walked over to him and started poking him in the stomach.

"Up boy." She said to him. He woke up and moved so she could pull out the bed. The couch had a pullout bed.

She and Roxas laid down on the pull out bed that was surprisingly comfortable. Namine turned on the TV on the end of the bed and watched Full Metal Alchemist. Roxas rolled over to face Namine. He then pulled her close to him and held her protectively. She smiled and cuddled up to him. They watched the end of the FMA episode then drifted off to sleep.

**-Dragon's blood**


	10. Grand Theft Auto

**Chapter Ten: Grand Theft Auto**

At 7:13 in the morning Namine started to wake up. Then she took a look at the clock next to the pull out bed she and Roxas was on.

"Oh crap!" she yelled as she jumped out of the bed and ran up the stairs as if a murderer was chasing her.

"Wha? What's happening?" said Roxas. He sat up, his hair was even more messy than usual and eyes open unevenly. Namine threw her backpack over the stair railing and it hit poor Roxas in the head. He fell off the bed in a crash.

"Let's go bitch! I'll take all of ya!" Roxas said as he stood upright and held out his fists. He thinking he was being attacked. When he finally realized where he was he looked around for Namine. He saw her running down the stairs.

"Hey, what's going on?" he asked.

"I'm gonna be late!" she said as she ran into the kitchen.

"Late for what?" Roxas was confused.

"School!" she said as he rushed for the door. But then she turned around and went back over to Roxas.

"Sorry Roxas but I have to go to school now. I'll be back at 2:00." She said then gave him a kiss on the check and ran out the door.

"Oh ok, bye…" that all happened quickly.

"So what am I gonna do till Namine gets back? Holy shit that's right! Today is my last day to get the munny! Crap what am I gonna do? There's no way I'm stealing from the one I love or the one's who took care of me when I needed them most. Crap what to do…"

Roxas eventually decided to go back to the usual spot to try and get some help. But he wanted to leave Namine a note so she knew he was out but would be back. He found a pencil and paper and was about to write but then he remembered something. _'what am I doing? I don't know how to write! Well, guess I'll just draw something.' _So Roxas drew a stick figure leaving what looked like a house. Hoping she would know what it meant.

Then he left for his usual spot. When he got there, there wasn't anybody there.

"Hello?" Roxas said. And to his surprise someone answered.

"Roxas is that you buddy?" Axel said as he came out from around the corner.

"Axel! You gotta help me with something!" Roxas said in a rush. Then he told Axel the whole deal about what was going on.

"Well that's quite a story. Hmm, yeah of course I'll help you." Axel said.

"Really? How?" asked Roxas.

"You know the Twilight Town Central Bank right?" Axel said while rubbing his chin.

"No way Axel, we can't do that!" Roxas said.

"Ok, you can just go get the munny from that shelter or Namine…" Axel said to him.

"Fine, Bank it is. But how?" Roxas asked.

"Leave that to me, now come on let's go." Axel and Roxas left their usual spot for the Bank. _'Axel better know what it is he's doing.'_ Roxas thought to himself.

X x X x X X x X x X x X

Axel had told Roxas his whole plan, how they were gonna get in, get the munny and get out. Roxas had the first part in this act so he went in.

When he got in there he went in the middle of the bank and dropped to the ground in a coughing seizure like fit and caused everyone to pay attention to him. The security guards and other people rushed over to him. He was a really good actor.

With everyone's attention on Roxas, Axel snuck in and took out the two security cameras on ether side of the Bank then went in the back door. There was a security guard back there, but he was sleeping. Axel slowly and quietly walked past him and into another room with a vault.

"Damn, it needs a key." Axel said as he noticed a keyhole in the vault.

He looked back at the sleeping guard to see a pair of keys hanging from his belt. He walked over to him and carefully pulled them off. Then they slipped from his hands and clanked on the ground. Axel looked up at the guard expecting him to wake up. But he just snored away…

Axel walked back to the vault and opened it. He walked in and took about twenty pounds of munny in a sack and swung it over his back. He closed the vault when he left. He was almost to the door when he heard someone behind him.

"Hey!" said the voice.

Axel stopped dead in his tracks and turned his head to see who said that. He saw the once sleeping guard standing and pointing right at him.

"What do you think your doing? How did you get back here?" yelled the guard.

Axel took off running out the door into the big room where Roxas was still putting on his little act. He was so good at playing dead that a woman who worked behind the counter was trying to give him CPR.

"Roxas! Run!" Axel yelled as he was running for the door. Roxas magically came back to life and ran after Axel.

"Stop them!" the guard yelled who was trying to catch Axel, but he was too fat to keep up. Someone hit the alarm as the two ran out the door.

"Shit, the police are gonna be here soon! We can't get away fast enough on foot! What are we going to do now Axel?" Roxas asked while trying to keep up with Axel.

"You're right, we need wheels!" he said.

"What!"

"Hey we already robbed a Bank, why not a car too?" said Axel.

They ran into a near by parking lot and saw a sporty looking red car. They needed something fast. Luckily the stupid owner left the doors unlocked.

"Yes!" Roxas said. He jumped in the drivers seat and Axel got in the passengers side.

"Wait, this wont work, let's switch." Axel said.

"Ok." Roxas said, but then the police came around the corner. But they weren't aware that Roxas and Axel were in a car yet.

"Shit! Never mind, just hot wire it!" said Axel.

"What?" Roxas had no idea what he was saying.

"Oh, let me do it!" Axel leaned over Roxas and turned on the car.

"Now drive!" Axel said.

"Ah, how?" Roxas was still confused.

"Put it into drive like this and press that to make it go and that one to make it stop! Now go!" Axel explained to him.

"Oh ok." He was about to go but then the police noticed them.

"Punch it!" yelled Axel.

"Ahh!" Roxas yelled.

The police tried to ram them, but that just got Roxas started. He flew down the street barley avoiding other cars. Both Axel and Roxas where screaming.

"Aaahhhhh!" they yelled as the car flew down the street. Axel was digging his nails into the dashboard in front of him and Roxas was gripping the wheel.

"Ahh! Son of a bitch!" Axel yelled as Roxas kept barley avoiding all the other cars and people on the street.

"No! Stop! Turn! Watch out! Go, go, go!" Axel kept yelling at Roxas.

"Axel, shut the fuck up! Stop back seat driving! If we crash, we crash! Ahh!" he almost hit a old lady in a wheel chair.

They eventually lost the cops. For now. So now Roxas drove normally. At least tried to. They were both breathing really hard.

"Thank God that's over!" Axel said as he began to relax.

"Hey wanna turn the radio on?" Roxas said.

"Yeah, sure." Axel began looking for a good station. "Ah, this is perfect."

_Life's like a road that you travel on  
When there's one day here and the next day gone  
Sometimes you bend, sometimes you stand  
Sometimes you turn your back to the wind  
There's a world outside ev'ry darkened door  
Where blues won't haunt you anymore  
Where brave are free and lovers soar  
Come ride with me to the distant shore  
We won't hesitate  
To break down the garden gate  
There's not much time left today_

Roxas and Axel started to sing along to it, they were so happy they got away from the police. While listening to this song Roxas was thinking of Namine, and Axel was surprisingly thinking about Larxene.

_Life is a highway  
I wanna ride it all night long  
If you're going my way  
I wanna drive it all night long_

Through all these cities and all these towns  
It's in my blood and it's all around  
I love you now like I loved you then  
This is the road and these are the hands  
From Mozambique to those Memphis nights  
The Khyber Pass to Vancouver's lights

Knock me down get back up again  
You're in my blood  
I'm not a lonely man  
There's no load I can't hold  
Road so rough this I know  
I'll be there when the light comes in  
Just tell 'em we're survivors

"Hey, just pull over here, we can get a room for the night then head back early tomorrow morning and give Xemnas his munny." Axel said, he was pointing to a motel.

"Yeah." So they got a room and had themselves a good rest. All of the excitement from today really took a toll on them.

_There was a distance between you and I  
A misunderstanding once  
But now we look it in the eye  
There ain't no load that I can't hold  
Road so rough this I know  
I'll be there when the light comes in  
Just tell 'em we're survivors_

Life is a highway  
I wanna ride it all night long  
If you're going my way  
I wanna drive it all night long

_**Song – 'Life is a Highway' by **__**Rascal Flatts**_

**-Dragon's blood**


	11. Battle For A Life

**Chapter Eleven: Battle For A Life**

The next morning Roxas was the first to wake up. At first he didn't know where he was but then he remembered last night. And to make sure it wasn't all a dream he looked outside to see the red sports car parked out in the lot and the munny sack under his bed.

'_Well, better get this munny to Xemnas before he thinks I ran out on him.'_ Roxas thought to himself.

He walked over to Axel who was still asleep on the other bed. He was hugging the pillow as well as drooling on it. Roxas shook Axel's shoulder to wake him.

"Hey Axel, dude wake up. We gotta go." Roxas said.

Axel just waved his hand signaling to Roxas to go away. So Roxas grabbed his pillow and pulled it away from him. Then he woke up and looked at Roxas.

"Hey what was that for?" Axel said.

"Come on Axel, we gotta get out of here now. We have to get the munny to Xemnas and the cops might find us if we stay here long enough." He said.

"Oh yeah, ok let's go." Then they got their things together and went out to the car.

"Hey I'm driving this time." Axel said.

"Go right ahead." Roxas said, he didn't like driving at all after last night's experience.

They got back to their Usual Spot and Roxas went over to Xemnas' room to give him the munny, he knocked on the door, then Xemnas' voice said "enter."

"Here it is Xemnas, the munny just like you asked." Roxas said as he placed the munny sack on his desk.

Xemnas then walked out of the dark corner of his room, startling Roxas. The thing that scared him the most was Xemnas' yellow eyes that seemed to glow in to dark. Xemnas looked at the munny sack then over at Roxas.

"This munny is late, Roxas." Said Xemnas.

"I'm sorry! I got it here as soon as I could though!" Roxas said in his defense.

"I don't want to hear your excuses boy."

"But sir, I really tried my best!"

"Obviously your 'best' was not good enough." Xemnas said. "You remember what I said would happen if this munny was late, did you not?"

"Xemnas please! Don't hurt her! She has nothing to do with this!" Roxas pleaded.

"How much does this girl mean to you Roxas?" Xemnas asked.

"She means everything to me!" he said.

"Prove to me how much you care for her."

Roxas went over to Xemnas and got on his hands and knees.

"Please sir, don't hurt her. Whatever you were going to do to her, do to me instead." Roxas said.

"Hmm, if this girl really does mean this much to you, then if I were to say, 'remove' her then you would have truly learned your lesson not to take me lightly when I say I need you to do something." Xemnas said coldly.

Roxas jumped up off his hands and knees. He was done begging.

"No! There is no way I'm letting you even touch Namine!" Roxas said as he charged Xemnas and jumped at him.

Xemnas just raised one hand and grabbed him by his throat and then threw him against the wall causing to whole house to shake slightly.

"You dare to raise your voice to me? Then attack?" Xemnas said. Roxas coughed then slowly got up.

"Yeah, and I'll do it again if I have to." He said.

"Then you better get to your precious Namine before I do." Warned Xemnas.

Roxas had a look of shock on his face then he bolted out of the Usual spot and ran as fast as he could to Namine's house hoping she would be there.

He finally got to her door and just barged in without knocking and ran around looking for her.

"Namine! Namine are you here?" he called out for her.

"Roxas is that you?" Namine was standing at the top of the stairs. "Roxas! Your home!" she came down the stairs and jumped him with a hug. "I was worried about you!" she said with her face in his chest.

"Oh I'm so glad you're here." Roxas said as he held her tightly and closely to him. Namine could feel him shaking a little bit.

"R-Roxas? Is there something wrong? Your shaking." She said, very concerned for him.

"Namine! There's this guy, Xemnas, he's sorta my gang's leader and well, I screwed up really badly and now he's after you because you mean so much to me! It's a really long story but the short part of it is that your in danger and I came back to protect you! You have to stay inside no matter what ok?" Roxas said quite quickly.

"Roxas, why don't we just call the police?" she asked.

"Uh yeah, about that…the police are kind of after me at the moment so…" he started to explain.

"What! Why are the police looking for you? What did you do to piss your leader off so much? What the hell is going on!" Namine wanted answers.

"That part I'll have to tell you later, point is that you're in serious danger!"

"Roxas if I understand what you're saying, then if we don't call the police this man will kill us right?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

"Then we have no choice!" she said.

"Fine I'll call the police!" Roxas went over to the phone and dialed 911. "Hello? Hello!" the line was dead.

"Shit! Xemnas must be doing this." Roxas said as he hung the phone up.

"How could Xemnas have done that?" Namine asked.

"Xemnas, he's not normal. He's the reason why no other gang wants to mess with us. He's-" but the Roxas was cut off by three loud bangs on the front door.

"…He's here. Namine hide!" Roxas said. She took off up the stairs.

Roxas went to the front door and opened it then stepped outside. He saw Xemnas standing in the middle of the snow-covered yard.

'_How did he knock on the door from the middle of the yard? But then again, that's why he's not normal.'_ Roxas thought to himself.

"Roxas, are you sure you want to fight me? Unarmed? Is this girl truly worth your life?" Xemnas said.

"You better believe it." He said while still standing on the steps in front of the door. He slowly walked down the four steps and onto the snow.

Namine appeared on the second story balcony above Roxas. She had something by her side. Xemnas then pulled a long sword out, which seemed to come from out of nowhere, then a second.

"Prepare to be punished for your insubordination." Xemnas said as he pointed the long sword in his right hand at Roxas. "There will be no mercy."

"Roxas!" Namine called out from the balcony. Roxas looked up to see her throwing something down to him. It was a sword that landed about five feet from him and stuck in the ground. Roxas ran over to it and pulled it out of the ground and prepared to fight his leader.

(A/N: imagine how Roxas holds the Keyblade in the game. And when he runs he holds it over his shoulder just like in the game as well.)

Xemnas seemed to glide across the yard towards Roxas in a blink of the eye. Roxas blocked Xemnas' first attack with his sword. And continued to just block his moves. Roxas knew that Xemnas was just playing with him. Then Xemnas finally decided to lay some damage on Roxas, and he sliced his right shoulder.

"Ahh!" Roxas yelled in pain as he fell to the snow covered ground, staining the white snow red with his blood.

By cutting his right shoulder, it made it harder for Roxas to hold his sword for he was right handed. Roxas looked up at Xemnas. Roxas' eyes looked as if cold fires were burning in them. He got up and held the sword as if he felt no pain, his drive to fight and protect Namine made him forget about the pain.

Soon Roxas was fighting with pure rage. Xemnas was letting Roxas attack him with all his strength. And Xemnas easily blocked every swing. He was letting him burn away all his energy. Eventually Roxas stopped beating on Xemnas' swords and backed up a few steps. Roxas was breathing hard. He had worn himself out.

Then Roxas just charged Xemnas and jabbed his sword right at Xemnas' chest. But Xemnas jumped to the side with abnormal speed causing Roxas to fall into the snow.

Roxas got up and faced him. He bared his teeth at him and charged him again.

"This has taking long enough." Xemnas said as he swung the sword at Roxas' head, but luckily he moved just in time, but Xemnas still got Roxas in the face. He fell to the ground. When Roxas picked his head up, he had a gash across his face from the top of his right eyebrow, across the bridge of his nose and it ended under his left eye. The blood dripped down his face and into the snow. The snow melted when his blood hit it.

Xemnas charged Roxas again and before he could get up Xemnas slashed him in his side. Roxas yelled out in pain again and hit the snowy ground with a thud. He didn't get back up this time.

"Roxas! No!" Namine shouted out. She ran into her father's room and got another one of his swords and then ran outside as fast as she could. She ran to Roxas and stood over him. This time, she was the one protecting him.

"Don't you dare come any closer!" she held up her sword.

"Hahaha! Little girl do you have any idea what your doing?" Xemnas said.

"Protecting Roxas!" and with that Roxas got up and stood beside Namine.

"Namine…got back inside…hurry." He said.

"No! If you die, I couldn't go on with life. So if you go down, we both go down." She was a girl who knew well what she was doing.

Roxas just stared at her for a moment in shock, but then he nodded his head once and faced Xemnas. They would now fight him together.

"Your both fools. Both of your lives end tonight."

**-Dragon's blood**


	12. Revolution

Chapter Twelve: Revolution 

There they were, standing in the snow about to fight for their lives. Just by standing by each other's side at that moment showed their true love and loyalty to one another.

"Namine, are you sure you want to do this? You can still go back inside." Said Roxas.

"There is no way I'm leaving your side now." She said.

"Your talk is making me sick." Xemnas said. Then he charged at them both.

Roxas jumped in front of Namine to protect her from his attack. He closed his eyes waiting for his sword to meet his flesh, but it never did. Instead Roxas heard a sound of metal on metal in front of him. He opened his eyes to see no one else but his good friend, Axel, blocking Xemnas' sword.

"Thought I was gonna let you have all the fun, Roxas?" Axel said.

"Axel! What are you doing here?" Roxas said with surprise.

"Saving your ass! What's it look like?" he replied. "If you want to hurt Roxas or Namine, you'll have to go through me first!" Axel said as he pushed Xemnas about five feet away.

"Axel? Why would you want to betray me?" Xemnas asked.

"Because, you're trying to kill my best friend!" Axel said as he twirled his Chakrams in the air.

"Fine, if this is the fate you choose." Xemnas said.

"Count me in too!" said Larxene as she ran up beside Axel. She had small throwing daggers between each of her fingers.

"Me three!" then Demyx ran up next to Roxas. He had his guitar shaped weapon called the Sitar with him.

"Larxene, Demyx? You too? Why would you do this to me? Have I not served you all well as a leader?" Xemnas was confused as to why three of his members would suddenly turn on him.

"Seeing you attempting to kill Roxas and Namine has shown me that you might just do the same thing to me one day. How could I ever trust you again?" Larxene said.

"Exactly! What she said." Demyx said.

"If there is now way I can persuade you, then fine, your fate is the same as Roxas' and the girl's." Xemnas said with a cold voice.

But then someone came up next to Xemnas' side.

"Sir, I'm here to lend my services if you wish." It was Saïx, he had his Colossal Sword in his right hand.

"I knew I still had loyal members in my family" Xemnas said to Saïx.

"I knew you would always do something like this, Saïx." Axel said. He and Saïx had always been rivals.

"Why are you talking to me like that? You're the one who betrayed us." Said Saïx.

"That's it! You're going down Saïx!" Axel yelled as he charged him. Larxene followed right after him.

But then Vexen jumped over the wall that was around Namine's yard and landed in front of Larxene and blocking her with his large blue shield like weapon.

"Now, now. Let's make this a fair fight." Vexen said.

"You bastard!" Larxene yelled as she threw a few of her daggers at Vexen. But he just simply blocked them with his shield.

Axel was in combat with Saïx and Larxene with Vexen.

"Come on Roxas, you me and Namine have to get Xemnas now." Demyx said to Roxas.

"Yeah, let's get him!" the three charged him. But of course someone else came to stop Demyx.

Xaldin struck Demyx with his large lance. Demyx flew to the ground, but got back up to fight Xaldin.

"Ah man that one hurt Xaldin, did you have to hit me so hard?" Demyx whined.

"Obviously it wasn't hard enough." He said.

"Man I hate fighting…" Demyx said, then charged Xaldin.

"Xemnas your mine!" Roxas yelled as he ran towards Xemnas with his sword pointed right at his chest.

"Roxas! No, wait!" Namine called after him, but he wasn't listening.

"Fine, let's go boy." Xemnas picked up his sword and prepared to do combat with Roxas once again.

Roxas was running at Xemnas with his sword pointed forward, ready to plunge it into Xemnas' chest. But he just jumped to the side and then they started a marathon of blocking and attacking. So far not laying a scratch on each other. And this time Xemnas wasn't toying with him.

Axel and Saix were deep in combat as well. Axel would throw his Chakrams through the air like Frisbees and Saix would hit them back at him with his colossal sword. Axel would then catch them when he did this. Axel was a master with his Chakrams. He practiced with them for two hours each day. Axel then threw them so they would fly at a curve through the air.

Saix tried to hit it back, but missed. The Chakram ripped across his right arm and on the right side of his chest. He yelled out in pain and fell to one knee. Now with a damaged arm his use of the large colossal sword would be impaired, giving Axel the advantage.

Larxene and Vexen were deep in their battle as well. Larxene had what seemed like a never-ending supply of throwing daggers hidden in her baggy clothing. Vexen would block most of them. So far only two had hit him, one on the left thigh so than would make his movements slower, and the other hit him in his right shoulder.

Vexen had got Larxene a few times as well, his shield had sharp spikes all around the edges, and he could use them similar to the way that Axel used the Chakrams. But he couldn't throw them through the air, just get close enough to gash her with it. He got her slightly in the left side of her stomach. But luckily for her, it wasn't that deep.

Demyx wasn't doing so good in his fight with Xaldin. So far Xaldin had struck Demyx in the back, side, and head. Demyx was badly bruised and dizzy from the hit to the head, so he couldn't focus well. He was seeing two of everything. But then he got up and swung his Sitar and hit Xaldin in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him.

Back to Axel and Saix, they were about even in power. Axel knew he had to do something or he might lose. He was becoming tired and slow. Then suddenly an idea hit him, he pushed Saix back and ran about ten feet from him then turned around. He then threw one of his Chakrams in the air. It curved around Saix and then flew towards his back. Saix turned his back to Axel to block the Chakram. And as soon as Saix blocked the Chakram, Axel threw the other one right at Saix's back which was facing him.

"Aaahhh!" Saix yelled in pain. He turned his head to see the other Chakram stuck in his back. Then he dropped to his knees.

"Looks like I win, Saix." Axel said as he caught his other Chakram.

"I'll see you in hell…" then Saix fell face first into the snow.

Axel walked over to Saix and pulled out the Chakram that was stuck in his back. He looked around at his other friends who were fighting still, and saw that Demyx needed some help. So he jumped in.

Vexen had further wounded Larxene. The small gash in her side was now cut deeper. She was losing a lot of blood and was now very dizzy. She backed up a few steps then tripped over a stone. Her back hit a tree and she slid down the tree and sat at the base of it, still holding her side which was bleeding very badly.

"What are you to do now Larxene? Can you no longer fight? Maybe I should ease your pain, by putting you out of my misery!" Vexen smiled and started walking toward Larxene.

Then Larxene reached into her inside pocket in her jacket. She pulled out a mint box. She opened it and then dipped the end of one of her throwing daggers in the gel-like substance in the mint box. Then she jumped up and threw it at Vexen with lightning speed. It hit him in the shoulder. He looked down at it then pulled it out.

"Was that aimed for my chest? Even if it was, these things don't go very deep." He said as he threw the dagger to the ground.

Larxene sat back down in the snow at the base of the tree, holding onto her bleeding side. Vexen took two more steps toward Larxene, then his happy face turned to one of extreme shock and pain. He grabbed his shoulder where the dagger had hit.

"It…burns." He said. Then fell to the snowy ground.

"Hehe, home made poison, deadliest crap on this earth. I almost forgot that I had it in my jacket…" then she fell over on her side.

Roxas had wasted almost all of his energy fighting Xemnas. And Xemnas hadn't even broken a sweat. Roxas managed to cut Xemnas on the left arm, but nothing more. Roxas had been hurt the worst so far, he was still bleeding badly from the gash on his face, side, and shoulder. Because of the bleeding cut on his face, he could only see with one eye. Because blood was running over his right eye.

But the Namine decided that she had to do something, so she ran over to Roxas and tried to swing her sword at Xemnas to make him back away from Roxas. But then Xemnas just knocked her sword out of her hands with one swing of his. He sent the blade flying through the air and into the high part of a tree trunk.

"Namine, get out of here!" Roxas yelled. She now had no weapon, and no way to protect herself. So she ran into the house to find something else.

Her father had a thing for collecting weapons. She looked around the room and then her eyes fell upon a pistol, but it only had one bullet in it. She took it anyway.

Demyx and Axel finally took down Xaldin. Demyx smashed in Xaldin's chest with his Sitar. Then Axel slit his throat with the Chakrams. Messy, but they had to take him down. Axel was about to run over to Roxas to help him take Xemnas out but Roxas said to stay away.

"No Axel! This fight is mine!" he said.

"But your not going to win in that condition! Come on let me help you!" Axel called out.

"No, I can do this, just watch!" Roxas said as he swung the sword at Xemnas' head, he ducked as Roxas cut a few of his hairs off. That just angered Xemnas.

Then they started jumping and running all over the place, blocking attacks and getting sliced occasionally in the hand or arm by the blades. Namine finally came out if the house with the pistol in her hand. She then aimed it at Xemnas. But he was moving too much to get a clear shot at him. And she defiantly didn't want to hit Roxas my mistake. But if she didn't shoot him down now, then Roxas would most likely be killed…

Axel noticed what Namine was trying to do.

"Namine! Be careful! One wrong move and Roxas is done for!" Axel shouted.

She knew that. But she squeezed her eyes closed in fright. Then accidentally pulled the trigger. The pistol went off in a loud 'boom'. She gasped as she saw both Roxas and Xemnas fall to the ground. No one said anything. Xemnas was lying on top of Roxas, and both were motionless.

"Roxas…no…" was all Namine could bare to say. She had just killed the one she loved more that the world. She fell to her knees and tears started falling from her eyes. She remembered how they first met, he had saved her life, and she remembered the song he had sung to her on Christmas night, and also how cute he had been when something she said confused him. She wished that there was another bullet in that pistol so she could kill herself.

"Roxas…" Axel said in a whisper. Tears fell from his eyes as well. His best friend was dead. Memories of when he first met little nine-year-old Roxas standing on a pile of trash cans trying to get a glass of water out of a second story window washed over him, how tough he had acted for a nine year old… Demyx too was crying.

They all looked at Roxas and Xemnas lying in the snow. But then, Xemnas' shoulders started to move.

"Oh shit! He's still alive!" Demyx said.

"No Look!" Axel pointed at Xemnas and Roxas.

Roxas had pushed Xemnas off of him. He was still alive! He crawled about ten feet away from Xemnas and then collapsed on his side.

"Roxas!" Namine yelled and suddenly found the strength to run over to him, she fell next to him and then gently wrapped her arms around his head and shoulders and rested his head on her lap. "Oh thank God your alive." She held him closely to her as warm tears of joy fell onto his face. Roxas slowly wrapped an arm around Namine's waist.

"Ah! Larxene!" Axel yelled as he saw Larxene lying on her side by a tree. He raced over to her.

"Larxene? Larxene, please wake up! Come on Larxene, you can't be dead, you still need to beat me up for cheating at strip poker with you." Axel gently shook her shoulder.

Then she suddenly made a quiet groaning sound and looked up at him with half opened eyes.

"Hey Axel…did we win?" she asked so quietly.

"Yeah, yeah we did."

"Good, can we go home now? I'm missing my show." she said, as if everything that happened was an everyday venture.

"Of course we can." Axel said. He then picked her up bridal style and walked in the direction of their Usual Spot. But before he left with Larxene, he called out to Namine.

"Hey Namine, make sure to take good care of Roxas while I'm gone, ok?"

"Sure thing." She said.

Axel and Demyx then walked out of her yard and down the street. They were soon out of sight.

"Come on Roxas, can you stand up? I will help you get in the house." Namine let Roxas lean on her on their way inside. Because there was no way that she was strong enough to carry him inside.

He struggled up the stairs, but he did it with Namine's help. She laid him down on her bed. Then she went to get some medical supplies to treat his wounds. She got him all bandaged up and he was soon falling asleep. But before he did, he held out his arm signaling that he wanted Namine to lay with him.

She crawled onto the bed and carefully cuddled up to him. She was careful not to bump his wounds. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. He kissed her forehead and rested his check on top of her head. She smiled and nuzzled his neck and chest. She would always treasure every moment she had with Roxas, her hero.

And Roxas would always treasure the moments with Namine. She had taught him so many things, that it was ok to open up, ok to trust, and mostly of all, ok to love.

**-Dragon's blood**


	13. Hot Dogs and Stray Dogs

**Chapter Thirteen: Hot Dogs and Stray Dogs**

For the next week, Namine kept Roxas locked up in the house so he could give his wounds a chance to start healing. He could never just sit down and relax. She was gone during the day to go to school, so when she was at school she turned on the automatic locking system so no one could get in or out without punching in a code.

Going back to school didn't feel right to Namine. After all that had happened, school didn't fell like a reality anymore. She would zone out in class and think about that day when that war occurred in her front yard. She would find herself drawing pictures of Roxas in cool poses with the sword he was fighting with.

The only thing that got Roxas really upset about the whole fight was that the gash across his face from the top of his right eyebrow all the way to under his left eye, would be just one big scar. So his face was marked for life. But Namine reassured him that it just made him look even cooler.

The snow finally started to melt. But it was still very cold outside. Namine and her class were going out on a field trip today and would be gone till five in the afternoon. Roxas was bored out of his mind. So he decided to do what he does best - hop out a window.

He was feeling much better, as long as he didn't move around too fast. He chose to go to the park to see what was happening. The park always had something going on to keep him entertained. During his walk in the park he started to get really hungry. But of course he had no munny. Then he came upon a hot dog stand, more like smelt it first.

"Come on up folks and get yer hot dogs!" said the fat man who was selling the hot dogs.

'_Sure thing. I could go for a hot durgin.'_ Roxas thought to himself. He liked calling hot dogs _'hot durgins'._

He was thinking of a way to swipe some hot dogs without the man noticing. Then he felt something cold and wet touch his hand. He turned around to see a scruffy looking gray dog sniffing him.

"Oh, hey doggy. Wanna help me get some food?" Roxas said to the dog. The dog just looked at him.

"I'll take that as a 'yes'" then he got up and the dog followed him.

Without asking, the dog went up to the fat man selling hot dogs and started to bark at him. The man tried to make the dog leave because it was scaring off his costumers.

"Get out of here ya mangy mutt! Shoo! Get lost!" the man yelled, the dog finally went away. He then turned back around to see that five of his hot dogs had gone missing.

"Wha-? Where'd they go?" he said.

Roxas was sitting behind a tree about thirty yards from the hot dog stand and laughing quietly to himself as he began to eat one of his hot dogs. _'Ha ha! Idiot, that was too easy.'_ He thought to himself as he finished up his first hot dog. Just as he was about to eat the last one, the scruffy gray dog came over to Roxas and just looked at him with big hungry eyes. Roxas looked at the dog, then at his last hot dog.

"Oh fine, here, you can have it. You did help me get these after all." Then he tossed the food over to the mutt. It ate the food in one big bite. That was one hungry dog.

It was getting close to the time that Namine would be getting home, so Roxas got up and dusted himself off then walked towards the exit of the park. But he then noticed that the dog was following him.

"Oh come on now, you can't follow me home. It's not even my house!" said Roxas.

The dog's head, ears and tail dropped towards the ground as if he could understand what it was Roxas was saying. Then it started whimpering as Roxas started to walk off again. Roxas was a dog-lover so this just ate at his heart when he heard it make that sound.

"Ah! Fine! Come on doggy." He said, then the dog ran up next to him and followed him home.

When he got back home, he decided to give the dog a bath. If he wanted even a small shot at convincing Namine to let him keep the dog, he would have to make it look like a dog! The thing was filthy! So he took it out into the back yard and got a huge bucket with soapy water and got the dog wet with the hose. The dog had such a thick gray coat, the water didn't bother it. When Roxas finally got the dog all soaped up, it shook off some of the soap and got it on Roxas.

"Oh you so did not just do that!" he said as he got the hose again and sprayed the dog.

The dog started biting at the hose water and barking. Then after Roxas got all the soapy water off, he was shocked as to what he saw. The dog wasn't gray at all, but white! That's just how dirty it actually was. Then Roxas dried the dog off and brought it in the house, now being all clean.

"Now, what to name you? All dogs need names." He wondered to himself.

Then at that moment Namine came through the door.

"Roxas! I'm home finally! Did you die from boredom yet?" she called out.

"Oh crap, she's home already! Well, guess I better introduce you to her." He walked out of the kitchen with the dog by his side. "Hey Namine, look what I found today." He was waiting for the – 'what the hell do you think your doing bringing a dog into my house?_' _response.

"Oh what a cute fluffy doggy! Where did you find him?" Namine said as she went up to the dog and started to pet it. The dog licked her hands and face.

"Uh, at the park?" he was surprised that she didn't bite his head off for bringing a stray home.

"He doesn't have a collar, so I guess we can keep him. Aw, he's so cute!" Namine said as she scratched the dog's fluffy neck. "He's awfully clean for a stray. Do you think he belongs to someone?"

"I cleaned him when I brought him home." Roxas said.

"We should name him! Hmm, what though?" Namine asked.

"I was thinking about that myself just before you got home." Said Roxas.

"Oh, oh! I know what we can call him! Let's call him Rocks because you're the one that found him." She said.

"'Rocks'? Why would we call him 'Rocks'? Who names their dog 'Rocks'?" he said. But each and every time Roxas said 'Rocks' the dog barked and wagged it's tail.

"You? You like that name?" Roxas said to the dog. It just stared up at him. "Rocks." He said again. Then the dog barked and knocked him over then licked his face.

"Ok, ok get off! You're drowning me in your dog spit!" Roxas said, then Rocks got off him.

Namine yawned and stretched out.

"Wow, that school trip really took the energy out of me. I think I'll go to bed early." Namine said as she stood up.

"It's not that early. It's nine forty six. I guess I'll go to bed too."

"Yeah well nine is early for me."

They both headed up the stairs and into Namine's room. She had absolutely no problem sharing her bed with Roxas. She knew well that he would never try to pull anything. She went into her bathroom and took a quick shower. She was too tired to force Roxas to take a shower tonight. She'd do that in the morning. Rocks stayed down stairs for the night.

She got out of the shower and put on her pajamas. She then crawled under the covers and snuggled up close to Roxas who was already asleep. He was so warm all the time so it felt good to cuddle up to him on a cold night such as tonight.

…………………………………………………..

Roxas was having another one of his dreams where he was making out with Namine, completely into it too. But then he started to wake up, and then he saw Rocks laying on him and licking his face.

"Ah! Get off! Holy crap, I was making out with my dog!" he pushed Rocks off the bed and went into the bathroom to brush his teeth. For the first time in his life he actually wanted to brush his teeth, he used almost half of the toothpaste too.

When he came out he saw Rocks sitting right outside the bathroom door. Roxas just stood there and stared at him for about a minute. Then suddenly yelled.

"Why don't you ever go and bug Namine!" he said.

Then Rocks just walked down the hall and down the stairs then into the kitchen. Then Roxas heard Namine say something.

"Aw, Rocks! Good morning boy! Ah, your so cute, you must want some breakfast hu?" she said.

"Crap, in just one day this dog has made me feed it, bathe it, house it and what does he do to thank me? He steels my girlfriend." He shook his head then headed down stairs too.

"Oh there you are Roxas. I was wondering when you would come down. I heard you yelling at Rocks. He got you good, didn't he?" she laughed.

"Pff…" was all he said.

"Your not getting jealous over a dog are you? Well, I made you some pancakes for breakfast, does that make it better?" she asked.

"Why yes it does!" Roxas said as he made his way over to the table.

"Boys and their stomachs. Or should I say Roxas and his stomach." She went over to the table too to eat breakfast.

The entire time Rocks was begging and whining for food.

"I don't know if I should feed you Rocks, I mean your already so fat." Namine said as she scratched his head.

"That's not fat, it's just his puffy fur." Roxas said. "Stray dogs don't get fat."

"No, I really think he's just a fat doggy." She said as she kept petting him.

"Whatever." Roxas was more interested in eating his pancakes that argue whether Rocks was fat or just extra furry.

"Roxas you better be taking a shower tonight. You smell like pig pen." Namine said.

"Oh thanks. And what if I don't?"

"Well then I wont make you dinner. You can just starve to death." She said as she crossed her arms.

"Eh, fine, I'll bathe tonight." Then he finished up his pancakes.

"Hey Roxas, you wanna go down to the home today? That's your home too ya know." Namine suggested.

"Uh, sure why not?"

They got ready and got a rope to use as a leash for Rocks. They wanted to take him along too. But for some reason, Rocks started acting a little sick. He was lying on his side on the couch with his eyes closed and making whining noises.

"Aw Rocks, what's wrong?" Namine petted his head gently.

"I think we should just leave him here, he's obviously not feeling that great at the moment." Roxas said.

"Yeah, I guess your right." Then they headed out the door and walked to the shelter.

About fifteen minutes later they arrived there. When they got inside Areth nearly killed them with a bear hug. It had been weeks if not a month since they last saw her. And they told her all about that horrible war that occurred about two weeks ago in Namine's front yard. They told her about it because Areth saw the long scar on Roxas' face. They stayed almost all day. Then they eventually left. Roxas didn't stay there anymore because his home was with Namine.

When they got home it was time for Roxas to do something he hated. It was bath time.

"Roxas get your smelly ass in there or I swear I'll-" Namine started but then Roxas said-

"Alright, alright I'm going." He walked up stairs and into the bathroom.

"Now where is that dog?" she began to look around the house for him.

Roxas was about half way through his shower when he heard Namine yelling for him.

"Roxas! Come quick it's Rocks! Hurry, get out here!" she yelled.

He jumped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist, his hair still dripping with water and shampoo suds. He also had a toothbrush sticking out of his mouth. He ran down the stairs.

"In here Roxas!" he heard Namine's voice coming from the office room in the back of the house. He ran through the kitchen and almost slipped on the floor three times with his wet feet.

He rushed over to the room, remembering how sick Rocks looked before they left. _'Oh please don't let that dog be dead!'_ that thought ran through his head as he rushed into the office. He saw Namine crouched down and looking under the office desk.

"Vat? Who deisd?" Roxas said with the tooth brush still stuck in his mouth. And he was spitting tooth paste everywhere.

"Here! Come here!" she had a large smile on her face, not a sad one. She waved to him to come over. When he took a look under the desk at Rocks he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"Ho my gward…" was all he could say.

"Hehe. Looks like our Rocks is a Roxie." Namine said.

This was because Roxie was surrounded by seven little puppies.

"See, I told you she was fat, not just extra fluffy." Namine said as she carefully picked up one of the puppies.

"Pupehs?" Roxas said. Then the toothbrush fell to the ground because Roxas' jaw had dropped.

"Oh Roxas, your still wet. Go dry off and come back. Your getting the floor all wet." She said. He went off to do so.

When he came back, Namine had moved all the puppies to the living room and was sitting on the couch with them and Roxie. He took a seat next to her.

"Aren't these puppies the cutest things you've ever seen?" she said as she held two of them. The two she was holding were both white, three more of them were black with white chests, and the other two were by Roxie's feet. One was yellow and the other was a light brown.

"Yeah, good thing we didn't take her with us to the shelter then." Roxas said. Then he picked up one of the little black puppies and gently held it on his lap.

"It's also a good thing you took her off the streets. Imagine what would have happened to these puppies if they were born on the streets." She said with a smile to him.

"…Yeah." Then Roxas carefully put the puppy back down with it's mother and walked up stairs and into Namine's room, closing the door behind him.

"Roxas…? Oh I hope it wasn't something I said." She felt so horrible at that moment.

She too carefully put the puppies down on the couch.

"Their your puppies Roxie, you take care of them for now." Namine said as she headed up the stairs after Roxas.

Roxie gently picked up all the puppies one by one in her mouth and placed them on the couch. Then she curled up beside them and fell asleep.

**-** **Dragon's blood**


	14. Kicked Out

**Chapter Fourteen: Kicked Out**

Namine walked up the stairs then over to her bedroom door and knocked on it.

"Roxas? Can I come in?" she asked.

"Why are you asking me that? It's your room after all." But he came over and opened the door anyway. He had a blank expression on his face.

"Are you ok? Did I say something? If I did I'm horribly sorry! I never meant to-" Namine was saying but Roxas put a finger to her lips to stop her from talking.

"It's ok, you didn't say anything that made me angry. How could I ever get angry with you? Hehe, your too cute." He said then he brought her into a hug.

She hugged him back then he broke the hug off a little sooner than Namine would have wanted. She looked up at him and saw that he was looking off to the side and at the ground.

"Roxas…?" she slightly bent her head to the side to properly see his face.

He just moved his eyes to look at her, but his head was still pointed in the same direction, at the ground. He gave her a smile that Namine knew was fake. So she put on a fake smile too. Then when he saw her fake smile his turned into a real one then he made a snorting sound and laughed a little.

"Haha, I got you." Namine said as she began to laugh a little too. "I love your laugh, you need to do that more."

Roxas smiled and then he ruffled up her hair.

"Ah, I hate it when you do that!" she said then began to chase him around her room and eventually tackled him onto her bed.

She was lying on top of him when she knocked him onto the bed. Their faces where just about two inches apart. Roxas leaned his head up and kissed the tip of her nose. She smiled again and rested her head on his chest. She could feel Roxas' breath blowing on top of her head, causing her hair to gently blow around with each exhale.

"What are you doing? Going to sleep on me?" Roxas asked. She was laying on him for a while now without making a sound.

"Not sleeping, listening."

"Listening? To what?"

"Your heart."

"Oh."

They both laid there for a while, almost falling asleep. But then Namine asked him a question. She was hesitant, but she really wanted to know.

"Roxas…where you living on the streets your whole life?" she asked.

"No, not my whole life. I lived in that home and I live here with you now, don't I?" he said.

"No, you know what I mean, where you actually born on the streets?"

"…Yeah, yeah I was." He said.

"Oh Roxas, I'm sorry to hear that. But how long were you on the streets until the town built that shelter?"

"I believe I was about seven when the shelter was finally built." He said.

"You mean you where on the streets for the first seven years of your life?" she asked.

"Pretty much yeah." Roxas said.

Namine got off Roxas and laid beside him with her hand still on his chest so she could feel his heart. The rhythmic beat always seemed to comfort her. She rested her head on his right shoulder and he rested his check on her forehead. They just laid by each other like that for a few minutes before Roxas broke the silence.

"When did you start volunteering at the shelter?" he asked.

"Hmm, I'd say about a month before you saved me that night when we meet."

"You mean when you were stupidly walking through one of the most dangerous parts of town late at night all alone?" Roxas said.

"Yeah, that night." She said with a slightly annoyed voice.

"You were real lucky I was there, hu? But actually, I think _I_ was the one who was luck that _you_ were there." He said.

"What do you mean but that Roxas?" Namine asked.

"I mean that, if you weren't there that night, I would most likely would have never meet you and I wouldn't be this happy as I am right now. I wouldn't even be in this room with you right now." He looked over at her and looked into her deep blue eyes.

"Yeah…I guess your right." She looked back into his equally deep blue eyes.

"I guess I can say that it's because of you that I now believe in what they call fate or destiny." He said.

"I made you believe in destiny?" Namine said.

Roxas just kissed her again and smiled. Then she kissed him too. But then there was a sudden loud noise of a door slamming open and an old lady saying-

"Oh Namine dear, guess who's home!" the lady said.

Roxas and Namine jumped so badly that they fell off the bed together. Namine popped her head over the bed to see who had just given her and Roxas a heart attack.

"G-grandma?" she said with surprise.

"That's right baby, it's your granny! Your parents said they would be gone for just too long for you to be home alone. So here I am!" she said with excitement.

"Hehe, I'm glad to see you too grandma…" Namine said.

Then Roxas lifted his head over the bed to see her. And Namine's grandmother saw him.

"Who the devil are you? And what are you doing in my granddaughter's bedroom?" she said with anger.

"I-I wasn't doing anything I-" Roxas was trying to say.

"I want you out of this house immediately!" she yelled.

"But grandma!" Namine protested.

"No a word out of you, you know the rules around here, absolutely no boys in your room!" she said.

"Grandma he wasn't doing anything! You shouldn't be mad at him!" she said as she was trying to protect Roxas from her grandmother's wrath.

"Sure he may not have been doing anything at the moment but I bet he had ideas of getting into your pants sometime tonight!"

"Grandma!" Namine said, as she got embarrassed that she said that in front of Roxas.

"I said that boy leaves NOW!" she continued to yell.

"But gran-" she started but Roxas cut her off.

"No Namine, I think it would be better if I just left." He got up and walked passed her grandmother then down the stairs.

"And why is there a dog with puppies downstairs too? That's another rule around here, no pets! I'm calling the pound to pick them up."

"Wait grandma no! Their, uh, their Roxas' dogs! Yeah, he can take them with him. Right Roxas?" she said.

"Oh yeah, I'll take them with me." he said.

"Here, let me get you something to carry them in." Namine got two large picnic baskets for the puppies.

"Roxas, I'm so sorry. At least you could go to the shelter and stay there till my grandmother leaves. Again I'm sorry, good night." She gave him a kiss before she closed the door. From the other side Roxas heard her grandmother go off again.

"Did you just kiss him? Your not even allowed to have boys in your room let alone be kissing one!"

Roxas felt horrible for Namine. He wished he could have done something about her bitchy grandmother. But because he couldn't, he walked off with Roxie and the puppies to go to the shelter for the night.

"Grandma! How could you do that! He's a homeless boy, I was taking care of him here and I love him."

"You love him? Ha! You are too young to know what love is. I'm sure your just crushing on him. And he's homeless? Then why does he have those dogs?"

"I lied, they were our dogs. Sorry I just couldn't let you call the pound."

"Where then did the dogs come from?"

"Roxas and I brought her in from the streets and she had her puppies here."

"Oh great, your bringing home strays again. This time your bringing home dogs _and_ boys."

"Grandma how could you say those things? Both Roxas and our dog Roxie have treated me with more love than anyone. Even you and my parents!" she yelled.

"That boy and the dog have no place here with you. You are much more important in the world than they are."

"Why? Because I have more munny and come from royalty, is that it?"

"When you do finally fall in love it will be of someone much like yourself so you will be well taken care of and properly too. The homeless are of filthy blood and have no right to even share the same town as you."

"Grandma, it's not what a person has that determents who they are, it's what's in their heart that what truly matters."

"That is just a bunch of gibberish."

"I don't care what you say, I know for a fact that Roxas loves me and that he belongs here, with me."

"_His_ kind can never 'belong', now go to bed, or I will never let you leave this house until your twenty!"

Namine had a stare-down with her grandmother, then ran upstairs to her room and jumped on her bed. She cried into her pillow out of frustration with her grandmother.

…………………………………………………….

A little later Roxas and Roxie finally arrived at the shelter and knocked on the door. Then someone opened it.

"Hi Areth, I'm back."

"Oh Roxas! What on earth are you doing here so late? And who's this?" Areth said, pointing towards Roxie.

"This is my new dog Roxie, I got her about three days ago. Can she come in?" he asked.

"Of course she can, what's with those picnic baskets?" Areth asked, now pointing at the baskets.

"These?", he picked them up, " I think you'll like what's in them."

Areth moved out of the way so Roxas and the dog could come in. He went over to the couch and sat down and Roxie jumped up on the couch next to him. Roxas placed the baskets down next to him and opened them up and took the seven little puppies out.

"Oh my goodness! Look at those little guys, they're so small." Areth said from the armchair across from Roxas.

"Yeah, she had them the first night I brought her home." He said.

"Roxas, did you just say 'home'? Where have you been all this time?" she asked.

"I've been with Namine."

"Oh I see, you must really like it there hu? That must be why we haven't been seeing her around here lately, she's been with you."

"Hehe, yeah…" he said, then he put on one of his sad smiles.

"So then why are you here? Not that I don't love to see you or anything. But did you guys have a fight or something?" Areth wondered.

"No, we didn't fight. You see her grandma came home just now because she was going to watch her while her parents were out. They are going to be gone for a long time. And I guess, her grandma just didn't take a liking to me." Roxas explained.

"How could she not like a sweet and handsome boy like you?" Areth said as she got up and ruffled his already messy hair. He laughed, Areth was like a mother of sorts to him. And Areth felt like he was a son to her as well.

But soon Roxas' smile faded from his face.

"Is there something more that's bothering you?" Areth asked.

"…Well, it just feels like I'll never have a home, a _real_ home. No matter where I go, there will be someone to kick me out."

"That will never happen to you here Roxas."

"Come on, be honest, you wont let me stay here forever."

"I don't think you'd want to stay here forever."

"Yeah, I guess your right on that one."

Roxas was still wearing a frown on his face.

"Roxas…there's something I feel I should have told you a while ago…something about your mother." Areth said. And this got his attention immediately.

"Your mother loved you very much, anyone back then could have saw that."

"Yeah, if she loved me so much then why did she ditch me here?"

"She didn't ditch you, Roxas. She left you in our care, she knew you'd be better off being raised off of the streets and hopefully get adopted by a family that could care for you properly. She left you here because she knew you would have a better life, and was she right Roxas? Do you have a good life?" Areth explained to him.

"…Yeah I do, I have a great life." Roxas now saw his mother in a whole new light, he wasn't abandoned like he thought for so many years. "Areth, do you know where my mother is now?" He asked, hoping he could go and find her, to let her know how great his life had become.

"That's the other thing I wanted to tell you, her illness as you know required her to take medication. Well her illness soon became too out of hand for medication to help. She was in the hospital for two months before she passed. I'm so sorry that I never brought myself to tell you any of this sooner. I thought it best not to tell you when you were younger, but then you ran away and you were gone for six years..."

"No…it's ok I understand." He was unsure of how to feel, his mother had been gone from his life for so long, he didn't feel as though there was a bond left between him and his mother. Especially how he grew to hate her for thinking she ditched him. But now knowing the truth of why she left…he just didn't know. He was afraid to say that he didn't care, because he didn't know if that would make him a bad person.

"I'll just be going to bed now." Roxas said, he got up and Roxie followed.

"Good night then, Roxas." Areth said to him as he left the room.

Roxas put the puppies back in the baskets to be able to carry them to his room. Roxie followed close behind. When he got in there, he saw that nothing had been moved. He took all the puppies back out and carefully placed then all on a blanket he laid out for them in the corner of his room. Roxie then curled up with them and started to go to sleep.

"I think I'll do that too." Roxas said as he headed over to his bed and crawled under the covers.

He laid there for a while. He couldn't get to sleep, something was missing. He looked over to his side to notice that Namine wasn't there. He noticed just how much she was a part of his life. He couldn't even go to sleep at night if she was not beside him.

'_This is pathetic. I need to do something about all this.'_ He thought to himself before he finally drifted off to sleep.

The next morning when he woke up, the first this he did was lean over to say good morning to Namine. But of course he soon remembered that she wasn't with him. He got up and decided that he just had to prove to Namine's grandmother how good of a guy he was. And that he was just as important as anybody else.

Just as he was about to leave his room, he felt something tug at his shirt. He looked down to see Roxie.

"No girl, just stay here for now, Namine's grandmother doesn't like animals obviously. So if I want to impress her I can't have a dog with me. I know it's cruel but I'll be back for you." He kneeled down and hugged Roxie around her furry neck then left.

When Roxas got to Namine's house he saw that the gate had been closed and locked. Obviously her grandmother wanted to make sure he stayed out.

'_You'll have to do better than that grandma.'_ Roxas said to himself. He walked around to the back and saw a tree growing just next to the wall surrounding Namine's house. He climbed up it and jumped down onto the ground on the other side. He brushed himself off and walked to the front door and knocked on it.

Grandma opened the door.

"Hi-"

But then she just slammed the door shut in his face. Roxas could hear Namine's voice from the other side of the door.

"Grandma stop that!" the door opened again.

"Roxas! I'm so glad to see you!" she wrapped her arms around his neck and he hugged her back. "I'm still so sorry for how my grandmother is treating you."

"That's why I came back. I want to prove to her how good of a person I can be." He said with a smile to himself.

"I don't know if that would be such a good idea Roxas, she's so stubborn. She has always seen people like you as 'filthy' and 'unfit to belong'. If you could even make her just give you a chance at it, that would be a miracle." Namine said.

"Is that sack of filth still here?" her grandma called out.

"Grandma!" Namine called back. "I'm so sorry Roxas…"

"It's ok…" he said as he stepped back.

Namine slowly closed the door and continued to yell back at her grandmother. Roxas thought for a moment, then got an idea. He headed to the back.

Namine and her grandmother were in the kitchen. She was talking to Namine about 'proper people' again.

"Namine, one day you'll be thanking me and- ahh!" she yelled when she turned around to see Roxas sitting cross legged on top of the table in the middle of the kitchen and trying to read a cook book.

"Roxas!" Namine got startled when she saw Roxas too.

"When did you-!" grandma started.

"Just now."

"From where?"

"Back door."

"W-what are you trying to do?" grandma asked.

"I just want to prove to you that I'm a really good person." He put the cook book down and got off the table. Namine's grandmother just stared at him for a moment then began to walk in a circle around him, inspecting him he thought.

"…alright, I'll give you one chance. But if you screw up just once I never want to see your face again! Deal?"

"Deal!" he held out his hand.

But grandma just looked at it in a almost repulsed way then walked off into the living room to watch TV. Roxas then turned to Namine with a huge grin on his face. Namine's face had a look of pure shock.

"…it's a miracle…"

**- Dragon's blood**


	15. Never Going To Be Good Enough

**Chapter Fifteen: Never Going To Be Good Enough**

Roxas and Namine were sitting together in the living room now that grandma left to start making dinner. Roxas was wondering what grandma would want of him. He was lying on his back on the floor by Namine's feet. She was sitting on the couch, flipping though channels on the TV.

"Hey, do you have any idea what your grandmother might make me do by any chance would you?" Roxas asked.

"Hmm, I would think that she might just ask you questions and stuff, I doubt that she will actually make you _do _anything to prove yourself. But we'll see." Namine said. She had complete confidence in him that he could impress her grandmother.

"Yeah, I guess we will." But Roxas wasn't so sure he could. He knew how much Namine's grandmother hated him.

"Namine! And you - _boy_! Could you two come in here and give me a hand with dinner?" grandma called out.

"This must be test number one, Roxas." Namine said.

"Dinner? _Dinner?_ She expects me to help her _cook_ _dinner?_" Roxas knew he was screwed. And it was only test number one!

"Well all you have to do is try, and I'll be in there to give you directions along the way. This will be easy! You can do it!" Namine encouraged him.

"Yeah, cooking can't be that tough, I guess last time was just a small beginners mistake." Roxas said, he was starting to gain a little more confidence in himself.

"That's the spirit! Now let's go make dinner!" then they went into the kitchen.

"There you two are, now Namine could you and _that boy_ get out all the things we need to make burgers? I thought I would make this an easy dinner tonight." She said.

"Wow Roxas," Namine leaned over and whispered in his ear, "she is actually even giving you a chance to easily pass at this."

Roxas was relieved at this. Test number one wasn't going to be hard after all! So they both started to get out all the things needed for a burger.

Grandma but three burger patties on the frying pan and let them cook for a few minutes. Then she told Roxas to flip them.

"_Boy_, grab that spatula over there and flip these patties." She told him.

"Oh, uh, ok. I'll try to." He got the spatula and went over to the pan.

He stood there for a moment, wondering just what to do. So he looked over his shoulder to Namine. She was using hand motions to show him what to do. So then he put the spatula under one of the patties and tried to pick it up to flip it. But it was sticking to the pan. So he pulled harder, it still wasn't un-sticking. So he pulled up just a little harder. Then it flew off the pan and smacked on the ceiling above the stove and stuck there.

"Ops…" Roxas said.

Grandma just put her hand over her eyes and shook her head slowly.

"Ok…just get another patty out of the bag and put it on the pan. You can get that one off the ceiling later." She told him.

"Yeah." Roxas got another patty out and just as he was about to put it on the pan the one from the ceiling fell off and onto the pan. "Hey look at that! I flipped it!" he turned around and gave grandma a satisfied look.

"No, that patty is dirty now, take it off and put the new patty on!" she was getting agitated with him.

"Alright, alright! Sorry!" he didn't want to piss her off…that much.

"Hey Roxas, why don't you try singing or humming to concentrate better on what your doing?" Namine said.

"Yes I suppose that would work, why don't you give that a shot? Oh wait, do people like you even know of any songs?" grandma said. That really got Roxas pissed off.

"Grandma!" Namine said to her again.

"Yes I do know of some songs." Roxas said as he tried to keep his voice down.

"Really now? Well go ahead and sing one." Grandma said.

"Ok…ahem…_grandma got run over by a reindeer, coming home from our house one chris-_"

"Knock that off! Just finish up with those burger patties!" grandma yelled.

Roxas was happy with himself because he knew that he just got her back for calling him a stupid person again. And Namine was trying to keep from laughing out loud. Roxas finished up the burgers. And he did a really good job at it too. But grandma didn't eat hers. For some reason she thought that a burger that was cooked by 'his kind' would make her sick.

"Ok _boy_, for cooking a decent meal you can stay here tonight. Just stay out of my granddaughter's bedroom." She said.

"Yes ma'am. _Thank you_." He said through his teeth. He hated to be polite to that woman.

She then went up to the room she was staying in and went to sleep. And then Roxas went over to Namine and gave her a kiss and hugged her.

"I guess I'll say good night to you now then." He said.

"Why?" she asked him.

"Well your grandmother doesn't want me in your room and I'm kinda sleepy so I'll just sleep on one of these couches." He said to her.

"Oh, ok."

He let go of her then walked over to a couch and curled up in the corner then shut his eyes. He then felt something warm cuddle up to him. He opened his eyes to see Namine snuggled up to him.

"What-?" he was confused at first.

"Well, grandma said you couldn't come in and sleep in my room, but she never said I couldn't sleep down her with you now did she?"

"You right she didn't." Roxas wrapped himself around her to keep her warm and from falling off the couch when she fell asleep.

They were both soon asleep, for they always felt the most calm and comfortable around each other. That night they both had the same dream, they dreamt that they were having fun at a beach. And they were the only ones there. The sand was a perfect white color and was soft. The water was clear, and it had little fish swimming around at the bottom. They were having a great time as they ran around together in the clear water. Then Roxas was woken suddenly because he was being smacked in the head with something over and over again.

"Ah, ah! What the hell?" he waved his hands around. The betting stopped and he looked up to she Namine's grandmother standing over him with a wadded up newspaper.

"Aw man…"

He noticed that Namine was standing next to her grandma with a pissed off look on her face as she stared at her grandmother. Also there was a ray of sunshine coming through the front window. It was obviously morning and day two of his 'testing'.

"I don't have to cook breakfast do I?" he asked.

Grandma just hit him a few more times with the newspaper.

"Alright, alright! Stop it!" he said.

Namine then took the paper from her hand and threw it on the other couch.

"Grandma, don't hit Roxas like that! He's not a dog!" Namine said.

"He sure does look like one to me, go take a shower boy!" she then walked out of the room.

"Well you heard what she said, looks like ya gotta go clean up now." Namine said.

"Yeah alright, I'll go do that." He said and headed up the stairs.

'_I hate this wrinkled old bitch…'_ he though to himself.

Roxas was finishing up with his shower, which he hated. He got out and dried off. Then he got his clothes back on and headed out into the hall. He stopped to look at himself in the hallway mirror. He noticed that his eyebrows were just as messy as his hair. He smoothed them out, and at that moment grandma showed up behind him and he saw her in the mirror. Her sudden appearance startled him.

"Holly shit!" he whipped around and backed up to the wall.

"What? Did I scare you?" she asked.

"Uh, no. I just thought I saw something horribly disturbing in the mirror." He said with a smart-ass tone.

"Why you-! I want you out of this house right now! Now!" she yelled as she started to smack him with the newspaper that she apparently carried around the house.

"Ok! Knock it off!" Roxas said as he held his arms up to block himself.

She kept smacking at him until he got to the stairs. He kept backing up until he stumbled down the stairs.

"Stop it- whoa whoa!" he said as he tumbled down the stairs.

Grandma watched him fall down the stairs with one eyebrow raised. He was yelling while tumbling down. "Ah! Shit! Ouch, ouch! Fuck! Ow!" he said as he would hit the wall then the railing then eventually the floor. He laid there on his back for a minute, making sure that nothing was broken. Then he propped himself up on his elbows and rubbed his head then snorted at her.

Roxas got up from the floor, he was a little sore all over but other than that he was fine. He walked towards the front door to leave. He didn't have to be at Namine's house to be able to see her. But she saw him on his way out.

"Roxas, where are you going?" she asked.

"Your grandma just kicked me out." He said to her.

"What? Why? You didn't do anything, did you?" she asked.

"Well, I sorta called her 'horribly disturbing'."

"She got mad at you for telling the truth?" Namine said.

"Hahaha! Yeah I guess she did!" Roxas was happy that Namine hated the way her grandmother acted too.

"Ok, I'll go out with you then. I kinda want to see how Axel, Demyx and Larxene are doing." Namine said.

"Good idea."

"Hey grandma! Roxas and I are gonna go for a walk!" Namine called out to her.

"Fine, I don't care. As long as he is out of this house!" she called back.

So they headed out to see Axel, Demyx and Larxene. When the two of them finally got here they could hear loud music blasting from inside the Usual Spot.

"Oh yay! Axel must be throwing another one of his random house parties! Come on, you'll love this." Roxas said.

"'Random house party'? This should be interesting." Namine said to herself.

They went in and saw Axel and Larxene dancing to some very loud music. Quite well might I add. Demyx was laughing his ass off at Xigbar who had what looked like a pair of Larxene's underwear on his head. They of course both had beer in their hands. Marluxia was running around in a pair of boxers yelling, "The garden gnomes stole my clothes again!" He too was obviously drunk. Luxord, Lexaeus and Zexion were sitting by themselves at a table in the corner of the room and just sipping their drinks while talking. The weren't that big of party people.

Axel and Larxene were breaking out their best moves as they danced to the best song anyone could be dancing to.

I Like To Move It Move It  
I Like To Move It Move It  
I Like To Move It Move It  
Ya Like To (MOVE IT!)

I Like To Move It Move It  
I Like To Move It Move It  
I Like To Move It Move It  
Ya Like To (MOVE IT!)

All Girls All Over The World  
Original King Julian Pon Ya Case Man!  
I Love How All The Girls A Move Their Body  
And When Ya Move Ya Body  
Uno Move It  
Nice And Sweet And Sexy Alright!  
Woman Ya Cute And You Don't Need No Make-Up  
Original Cute Body You A Mek Man Mud Up  
Woman Ya Cute And You Don't Need No Make-Up  
Original Cute Body You A Mek Man Mud Up  
Woman! Physically Fit  
Physically Fit  
Physically  
Physically  
Physically  
Woman! Physically Fit  
Physically Fit  
Physically  
Physically  
Physically

Namine was shocked at the sight that she was seeing. She didn't know that the people that Roxas hung out could be this fun. She laughed, but the music was too loud for her to be heard.

So Roxas just took her hand and walked in with her. Axel noticed them come in and got off the dance floor, which was just the middle of the room though. And so did Larxene. Axel and Roxas greeted each other with a high-five and Namine and Larxene greeted each other with a hug. They would have said something to each other but the music was way too loud. Roxas thought he'd try and see if he remembered anything about how to break dance like Demyx taught him, so he ran out to the middle of the room and started to do a lot of twists and spins on nothing but his hands and head. Demyx saw his little buddy doing that and soon joined in.

Woman! Ya nice  
Sweet Fantastic  
Big Ship Pon De Ocean That A Big Titanic  
Woman! Ya Nice Sweet Energetic  
Big Ship Pon De Ocean That A Big Titanic  
Woman! Ya nice  
Sweet Fantastic  
Big Ship Pon De Ocean That A Big Titanic  
Woman! Ya nice  
Sweet Fantastic  
Big Ship Pon De Ocean That A Big Titanic  
WOMAN!

I Like To Move It Move It  
I Like To Move It Move It  
I Like To Move It Move It  
Ya Like To (MOVE IT!)

I Like To Move It Move It  
I Like To Move It Move It  
I Like To Move It Move It  
Ya Like To (MOVE IT!)

Namine cheered Roxas on, never imagining he could move like that. Both Demyx and Roxas looked equally matched in moves, and it looked as if they were having a dance-off or something of the sort.

Gal Ya Lipstick  
Pon Ya Face A Mek Man Mud Up  
Woman Ya Nice Broad Face  
And Ya Nice Hip Make Man  
Flip And Bust Them Lip  
Woman Ya Nice And Energetic  
Big Ship Pon De Ocean That A Big Titanic  
Woman! Ya Nice  
Broad Face  
And Ya Nice Hip  
Make Man Flip And Bust Them Lip  
Big Ship Pon De Ocean That A Big Titanic – WOAH!

I Like To Move It Move It  
I Like To Move It Move It  
I Like To Move It Move It  
Ya Like To (MOVE IT!)

Soon, Roxas and Demyx were too tired to pull any more moves, so they dragged themselves off the floor. Then Axel motioned Roxas over and to go out into the 'backyard'. When they got back there, Roxas and Namine told them all about their grandma problem.

"Wow, she sounds like a total bitch alright." Larxene said. "Oh! No offence by the way Namine!"

"Please, go right ahead, if you didn't call her a bitch I would of."

"Hey you know that you are always welcome to stay here, Namine." Axel offered.

"That would be great, but my grandmother would have every police unit in Twilight Town after me if I was gone past dark. She doesn't trust Roxas even one bit." Namine said as she leaned on him.

"Yeah it looks like no matter what I do, it's just not good enough for her." Roxas said.

"Well then Namine can just come see you here. Would that work out?" Axel said.

"My grandmother wont be staying too much longer. My parents are going to come home in about a week, and they will be staying for a whole month." Namine said.

"But will they like Roxas?" Larxene asked.

"I'm sure they would. They are much more excepting than my grandma, but then again, I think anyone would be more excepting than her." Said Namine.

"Yeah I think your right there." Roxas agreed with her.

Then all of the sudden they heard Xigbar yelling out at Marluxia.

"God damn it Marluxia! What the hell is your problem?"

"Oh great, I better go see what's going on…I'll be back." Axel said as he walked off inside.

"I never knew Axel as one to break up a fight." Roxas said.

"Yeah, well after that huge fight some time ago someone had to become this group's leader because Xemnas is gone. So Axel stepped up and took his place as leader. And I must say that living with these idiots has become much better with Axel as our guidance." Larxene explained.

"Really? Wow a lot has change while I've been gone." Roxas said.

Axel came back out finally.

"So what's up this time?" Larxene asked.

"Apparently, Marluxia had just a bit more to drink and then took off his boxers and swung them over his head. So I had to lock his naked ass in his room until he sobered up." Axel said to the group.

They all laughed at this, and they would never let Marluxia forget it either.

"Ok, so maybe things haven't changed _too_ much." Said Roxas.

**- Dragon's blood**


	16. Pay Back

**Chapter Sixteen: Pay Back**

Roxas had walked Namine home the other night and then went back to the Usual Spot and stayed there for the night. In the morning, Demyx woke Roxas up by smacking him in the face with a freshly cooked pancake. Then Axel smacked Demyx in the face with the pan. So Roxas was the last one to wake up and get his breakfast. Well, he kinda already had it on his face. Later, he went off to hang out with Axel. He found him sitting on the beat-up couch.

"Hey Axel, what's up?" Roxas said as he took a seat next to him.

"No much really. Except for Demyx, who keeps casing trouble like he did this morning." Said Axel.

"Ya know Axel, you've become very serious when you became our leader. How come?" asked Roxas.

"Well, I just feel like I have to always be watching things. Cuz if I don't something might go wrong and no one will trust me anymore. It was already really hard to get them to trust in me in the first place." Axel explained.

"Yeah…but I don't think you have to be constantly watching things all the time. You need to take breaks sometimes." Roxas said to him.

"You're right. But what if-"

"Shut up, lets have some fun. We both need it."

"Alright, but what is there to do around this Town? It's become dull lately." Axel said.

"Hmm…do you like dogs?" Roxas asked.

"Dogs? Uh sure, their ok I guess. Why?"

"Ok then, and do you feel like going to that shelter you hate so much?"

"Well I'll go as long as you promise me I wont get bored." Said Axel.

"Ok, lets go then." Roxas jumped up from the couch and Axel followed.

They both headed down to the shelter and Roxas knocked on the door. And of course Areth was the one to open the door and see Roxas. And Areth greeted Roxas with her bone crunching hugs. Then she noticed Axel.

"Well who have you brought with you today Roxas? He's one of your friends?" Areth asked.

"Yep, this is Axel. And I can't stick around today, I just came by to take Roxie off your hands. I think I've left her here long enough." Said Roxas.

"Oh ok, I'll go get her for you then. She's been a very good dog too, she doesn't bark much or try to eat anything but her food." Areth went inside to get Roxie.

"Hey Roxas, you never told me that you got a dog." Axel said.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to didn't I?" then Areth brought Roxie out and she tackled Roxas to the ground and licked his face.

"Roxie…off…can't…breath." Roxas tried to push her off.

The dog got off him, then noticed Axel. Then she jumped on him and brought him to the ground.

"No...off!" he said.

Roxas just laughed at him. Then Areth gave a large box to Roxas that had the puppies in them. And the puppies had their eyes open now. Roxie got off Axel finally and went over to Roxas and sat next to him and her puppies.

"Oh wow puppies." Axel said as he came over and looked at the little doggies.

Roxas picked up one of the black ones and handed it to Axel. He was a little surprised at first but he took it. He looked at it's small shiny blue eyes and heard it's little whimpers that little puppies make. And a small smile appeared oh Axel's face. His soft spot had been found.

Axel put the puppy back in the box with it's brothers and sisters. And Roxas got off the ground with the box of puppies and waved to Areth as they all left. Then they headed back to the Usual Spot. When they got back and opened the door, Axel was shocked at what he saw.

His loud party music was blasting, Marluxia and Xigbar were sword fighting with a broom and a mop, Larxene was trying to get Demyx down from the wall because Marluxia's weapon was holding him up on the wall by the back of his jacket as if it were a tack holding paper to a push pen board.

"Demyx, stop moving so much! I'm trying to help you here!" Larxene said.

"No! Just leave me up here!" He yelled back.

"What? Why?" Larxene asked.

"Because if I'm up here, Zexion can't get me." Demyx said.

"What is Zexion doing that's so bad?" Larxene wondered out loud.

Then suddenly one of Axel's charkrams was thrown into the wall next to Larxene's head. She turned around to see him running around and slashing at everything with the other one.

"Shit I'm outta here!" Larxene yelled and ran off, leaving Demyx hanging on the wall.

Roxas looked up at Axel, the expression on his face went from a shocked one to an angry one. He walked into the room and turned off the music.

"What the fuck is going on here!" he yelled.

Everyone stopped and looked at him.

"A-Axel! Your back!" Larxene said as she poked her head out from behind the old beat up couch.

Axel walked into the room and over to a table, shoved it over to Demyx and got up on it then ripped Marluxia's sickle like weapon out of the wall causing Demyx to fall to the ground. Axel held the weapon over his right shoulder and gave everyone in the room a death glare.

"All of you…out of my sight now!" he yelled.

Everyone dropped what they had in their hands and left to their rooms to escape Axel's wrath. Axel stabbed the wall with Marluxia's weapon and let it stay stuck in the wall like that as he hopped off the table.

"Does that include me?" Larxene asked as she crawled out from behind the couch.

Axel just walked over to the couch and sat down. Roxas came over to the couch too but sat on the other end and put the box with the puppies down by his feet. Larxene noticed the box and came over to it.

"Aw puppies! Where did they come from?" she asked.

"My dog had them." Roxas said to her.

Larxene picked two of them up, and they seemed to like her. She sat down on the couch between Axel and Roxas. Larxene looked over at Axel who had his head in his hands and was looking at the ground.

"What's eating at you so much?" she asked him.

"I was only gone for thirty minutes, and they stated fighting and destroying the house. They have absolutely no respect for me." he said, his head still in his hands.

"Well just give them some more time to see how good of a leader you can be, maybe you can do something to show them that they can trust you. I trust you." Larxene said.

But Axel didn't respond. Then Larxene got an idea. She put the two puppies she was holding on Axel's lap. Then picked up another one and pressed it's little cold nose on Axel's check, as if it were giving Axel a little puppy kiss. He still didn't move. So she put another puppy on him, then another. And soon enough, he had all seven puppies on him. Axel's facial expression was still a serious one, but he had seven little puppies crawling on him. So that just made him look funny.

Roxas tried hard not to laugh at him, but failed. And Larxene too laughed out loud at him. Then Axel finally looked like he noticed the puppies and began to pet and play with them. Then there was a knock at the door.

"I'll get that." Roxas said as he got up from the couch.

He opened the door to see Namine standing there. She glomped him as soon as he opened the door and he hugged her back.

"I wish you would say hi to me like that all the time." Roxas said, still holding Namine.

"I'm just so happy because my grandma is leaving and my parents are coming back tomorrow! My parents will love you! Just make sure you don't be too rude or vile. Or actually, just try not to be yourself then." Namine said.

"Really? Granny is gone?" Roxas said.

"She's leaving for her flight back home tonight. But the thing is, she wants to see you before she goes." Namine told him.

"Oh great. What does she want from me?" he said to himself.

"I honestly don't know. But will you come back with me?" she asked him.

"Uh, sure." Then he turned over to Axel and Larxene. "They guys, do you think that my dogs can stay here for now?" he asked them.

"Of course!" Larxene said before Axel could say anything.

Then Roxas and Namine headed out the door and back to her house to see what her grandmother wanted from him.

……………………………………………….

Namine and Roxas were walking though town on their way to Namine's home to see what her grandmother wanted before she left for her flight that night. Namine was telling Roxas what had happened while he was gone and he told her what had happened while she was gone. They laughed and held hands as they walked down the street. Dusk was seating in when they decided to take a short cut though an alleyway to get home faster. But they soon found out that that wasn't such a god idea.

"I'm not so sure that I want to go down there Roxas." Namine said to him. "It looks sorta dark." True, not much of the already dim light could get back there.

"Ah it's ok Namine, you're with me aren't you? Nothing bad can happen to you when I'm here." He said as he still held her hand and led her down the alleyway. She walked so closely behind him that she was practically breathing down his neck.

"Are you that scared?" he turned around to comfort her.

"…A little." Her voice was shaken.

"Ok, if your really that nervous, we'll go back." So he turned around and they began to walk back.

But before they could get out of the alleyway, someone grabbed Roxas and pulled him back, leaving Namine extremely confused and scared. She turned around to see where he went. A older looking teen in a long white sleeveless coat with a blue under shirt, black pants, boots, and beanie had a hold on Roxas. Two other teens showed up beside him. The one to the left was a darker colored male with short black hair, a red sleeveless shirt and a big metal necklace with a lightning bolt pendent, black pants and blue wrist bands. Then to the right was a girl, she had white hair and red eyes. She wore a blue sleeveless zip up shirt and light yellow pants with purple shoes.

"I don't know if you remember us but I do believe we deserve revenge." Said the one holding Roxas.

"Who are you three?" Namine asked.

"Heh, I knew you wouldn't remember. But Roxas here might, we meet you on the same night that he did." Said the one with a hold on Roxas.

"Wait…are you the three who tried to kidnap me the night Roxas saved me?" Namine said.

"I don't know if I'd call it 'kidnap' but borrowing you maybe." He said.

"Let him go! What would you need revenge for anyway?" she called out. Roxas couldn't talk due to the arm around his neck.

"You may not know this but Roxas and us have meet before. A few years back he was caught steeling some supplies from us, then after we taught him a lesson, he went and joined our rivals. That gang led by Xemnas, which we hear is no more. So now the gang is fewer and led by someone called Axel. Right?" said the teen who still had a strong grip on Roxas.

"And because he is one of _them_ and interfered with us in that other fight when we almost 'borrowed' you, we have been given permission from our superior to _kill_ him." He also said.

"No, just leave him alone! I'm sure he would never bother you three or your gang ever again after this." She tried to convince them.

"Oh, he's not ever gonna get another chance, ya'know." Said the one to the left.

"Pay back." Said the girl to the right.

Then the guy to the left went after Namine. Seeing this gave Roxas a sudden burst of energy and then reached back and grabbed the back of his attackers coat and threw him to the ground and ran after Namine's attacker. He jumped on his back and had a headlock on him. The guy tried to reach around to rip him off but couldn't quite reach him.

"Namine, quick get out of here! Now!" he yelled out to her.

"No! I'm not going to abandon you here!" she yelled back. She then ran over to the guy who Roxas was on and kicked him as hard as she could in his stomach. He coughed and hit the ground and held his stomach in pain.

"Wow…" was all Roxas said as she got off of the guy. Namine smiled to him.

"Ah! What the-? How did a girl take down Rai?" said the guy in the white coat. "Fuu! Get the girl, I'll take care of Roxas."

"Yes Seifer." Said Fuu, then they both went after Namine and Roxas.

Roxas stepped in front of Namine and ran towards Seifer and Fuu, but Fuu jumped to the side and over to Namine. Namine tried her best to defend herself by putting her arms up in front of her and jumping around. The way that Fuu and Namine were fighting looked like two vixens snarling and swatting at each other but never really landing a blow.

Roxas and Seifer on the other hand were really going at it. They have both been hit in the face, chest, arms and stomach by each other. They didn't look like foxes, but two nasty street dogs when they fought. Then Rai got up from the ground and helped Seifer fight with Roxas. Roxas ran off and around a corner in the alley, Seifer and Rai followed him.

"Where ya going chicken wuss?" Seifer called out to him.

But before Seifer and Rai noticed, Roxas had made them follow him into the darkest part of the alleyway. He had the advantage now, he knew this alleyway like the back of his hand.

"Rai did you see where he went?" Seifer's voice had some panic in it.

"No, I don't even know where we went, ya'know?" He said back.

They looked around hoping to see some light from somewhere so they could find their way back. But then Rai was tripped by something, he fell over in a crash.

"Ah, what did I trip over?" he said. His voice echoed off the walls.

Then a huge wooden crate was thrown at Rai's head which automatically knocked him out. The wood broke and scattered everywhere.

"Rai? Rai!" Seifer called out. But no answer. "Shit…hey chicken wuss! Why don't you come out here and fight me like a man!"

"Fight you like a man? I got some news for you, I'm still just a boy and I'll fight you like one." Roxas' voice echoed of the walls, making it hard to hear where it was that he was standing.

He ran at Seifer and punched him in his stomach and then hit him in his back with his elbow. And to Roxas' bad luck, the streetlights suddenly turned on. Seifer had a clear view of Roxas now.

"Ahh…fuck." was all Roxas said.

Namine had gotten lucky and managed to chase off Fuu my hitting her across the face and kicking her leg. Fuu wasn't much for fighting. Namine then turned to see two large shadows on the brick wall that appeared to be fighting. Roxas and Seifer were still around the corner of the alley and out of Namine's sight. But she could see their shadows due to the streetlights that had come on not too long ago.

They were throwing punches and blocking them too. They seemed pretty much even in fighting power so the fight wasn't really going anywhere. Namine just watched the shadows as if her life depended on it. She could tell who was who because Seifer was taller than Roxas and Roxas had spike hair. Seifer then knocked Roxas down on the ground.

"I think that this fight has gone on long enough." Then Seifer cheated by pulling out a gun on Roxas.

Namine saw it in the shadow on the wall. Roxas' figure was still sitting on the ground.

"Hey, that's not fair!" he called out.

"All is fair in a street fight." Said Seifer.

Then Roxas jumped up of the ground and lunged Seifer, hoping that he could tackle him to the ground before he pulled the trigger. And as soon as Roxas leapt though the air at him, Namine heard three gun shots go off. Roxas was still going through the air when Seifer shot the gun, then Roxas landed on him, bringing him to the ground too.

Namine put her hands over her mouth, she was too afraid to run around the corner to see if he was all right. The last thing she ever wanted to see was Roxas lying dead in a pool of his own blood. But she ran around the corner anyway, and when she did, she was shocked to see Roxas walking slowly towards her while brushing himself off.

"R-Roxas…?" she said with a shaky voice.

"That's why you never mess with a street kid, bitch!" then he kicked the motionless Seifer, then he looked up at Namine. "Haha, he missed!" Roxas grinned to her and held his arms out.

Namine glomped him and nearly squeezed the life out of him, but he hugged her back.

"Hey what happened to Seifer?" Namine asked.

"Oh, when I tackled him to the ground his head hit the ground so hard it must have knocked him out. Well, let's get the hell out of here and back to your place to call the cops so these jackasses don't come after you or me again." Roxas said.

So they both rushed home. Namine's grandma of course was yelling at the both of them as soon as they came in the door for being late and Roxas being all bloody. But they ignored her as Namine called the police and told them were her attackers were. They were picked up soon after and then the cops came by Namine's home to get the story straight. She told the police everything that had happened. Unfortunately the police could not find Fuu, because she ran off earlier in the fight. When the police left, Namine and Roxas had to explain their story all over again to grandma.

When Namine finished up their story, she was shocked.

"Boy, I mean, Roxas. Can I see you for a second?" grandma asked.

"Uh, sure." He got up off the couch and followed her into the kitchen.

"Roxas, when I first meet you I thought that you would be the one to drag my granddaughter into the life of a gangster, not save her from one. You've shown me that, perhaps, that who one is, is sometimes worth more than what one has. You have also shown me that you truly do love Namine, and no matter what I did, you two would find a way to be together. So I was wrong Roxas, you do have a place you belong…but I still think you're a dog." She patted him on his shoulder before leaving the kitchen.

"Namine, can I see you for a second now?" she asked.

"Sure grandma." Namine said. She took a seat next to Namine on the couch. Roxas stayed in the kitchen.

"I spoke to Roxas just now and told him I no longer have a problem with him being with you. But I would like to say something to you about him first before I have to leave. When you first meet him I'm sure you thought he was just a dog, like many other of the strays out there. But when you tamed him, then you needed each other. To you, he is unique in all the world, and to him, you are unique in all the world. But you must remember this; you have become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed." She got up from the couch and headed towards the front door. "I hope you will be a good girl until your parents get here, good bye my dear." She waved as she left out the door.

"Bye grandma." She said. Namine turned around to face Roxas who had come back out of the kitchen and took a seat on the couch. Namine went over to him and sat beside him.

"So what did my grandmother want with you?" she asked.

"Basically, I think she said that she excepts me for 'me' now." He told her.

"Really? That's great! Only if she could have done that earlier."

Namine looked over at Roxas, he looked like he was about to fall asleep sitting up like that. Today really took it out of him. She nudged him a little to get him to stand up and follow her up the stairs so he could go to sleep. He did so and when they got to her room, Roxas just collapsed on her bed and fell asleep almost as soon as his face hit the pillow.

Namine laughed a little when he did that then just sat down next to him and ran her fingers through his hair as he quietly snored.

"I hope you don't droll on my pillow." She said to him even though he couldn't hear her.

Namine turned off the lights and turned on the TV that was at the end of her bed. She then laid down next to Roxas and cuddled up to him. When Roxas felt her next to him, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer then fell back asleep.

There was no where else on earth that they would have rather been that where they were right now.

**- Dragon's blood**


	17. Home Is Were The Heart Is

**Chapter Seventeen: Home Is Were The Heart Is**

In the morning, Roxas yawned and stretched out. When he took a look around the room he noticed that Namine wasn't in there. He sat there on his back for a few more minutes longer so he could wake up a little bit more before he got up and did what ever it was that he was going to do today. He was about to drift off back to sleep when all of the sudden the bedroom door slammed open and Namine came running in and into her bathroom which was connected to her room and slammed that door behind her. She was in a panicked rush.

The sudden loud noses made Roxas jump up in fright. He then looked over at the digital clock next to the bed, it read 11:47am. Roxas slowly walked over to the bathroom door and knocked on it.

"Hey Namine? Is…is there something up?" he asked her through the door. But she didn't answer.

He could hear her opening and closing drawers and cabinets in a hurry then the door flew open and smacked Roxas to the ground. That's when Namine finally noticed him.

"Oh Roxas I'm sorry! I didn't know you were there!" she knelt down beside him and helped him up.

"No that's ok, I've taken doors to the face before." He stood up and rubbed his forehead. "So what's with the big rush? Is something happening?" he asked her now.

"Yes! I forgot that today is the day that my parents are coming home! And I still need to clean some of these rooms up and make myself look presentable, crap, crap I don't have enough time to do all of that!" she said in a hurry.

"Well, what if I helped you?" he offered.

"No, because I need you to be cleaned up too! You only have one chance to make a first impression! So it better be a good one!" she said to him.

"I'm sure I look just fine the way I look now." He said in protest for he did not want to take a shower.

"Roxas…the way your hair is sticking up from the way you slept on it makes you look like a roster, and I could smell you from all the way down in the kitchen, even with the eggs cooking in the pan. And I'm going to have to let you wear some of my father's clothes because yours are ripped, wrinkled, and dirty." She stated blankly to him.

"…" He couldn't respond to that. So he just simply turned around without a single word and walked into the bathroom and took his shower.

Namine smiled to herself because she knew that she had total power over him, and he knew it too. Then she remembered her situation and rushed off to take care of it. She ran into her parent's room to get Roxas a change of clothes. She got him a pair of black pants and a tan shirt and put it on the counter in the bathroom so when Roxas got out he would have something to put on.

Namine continued to run around the house and clean it up a bit, then she began to clean herself up. She changed clothes and straightened her hair. She wasn't the make up kind of girl.

"So how do I look in these?" Roxas came out of the bathroom wearing the clothes that Namine found for him.

"Pretty good actually. Better that those rags you were wearing earlier." She said to him.

Roxas snorted at her then sat down on her bed.

"Ok, I think I've got everything taken care of, we can relax until they get here." Then she flopped down on her bed and had her face buried in her pillows.

Roxas had gotten bored so when he looked down at Namine, he got an idea. He had noticed how defenseless she looked lying there on her stomach. Then an evil grin appeared on his face.

"Hey Namine…" Roxas said. She mumbled back what sounded like a "yeah".

He of course went for her ticklish spots once again and she jerked around and laughed uncontrollably while trying to get him to stop.

"Roxas! No, haha, stop, hahaha, please...haha!" she said as her eyes began to water from laughing so hard.

"I don't think so, I'm having a lot of fun doing this." He said as he continued to tickle her until she laughed so hard she was no longer making nose. Then he stopped so she could breathe.

"Oh I'm so getting you back for that Roxas." Said Namine as she picked up one of her pillows and bashed him over the head with it.

"That's how you want it hu?" and he too picked up one of her pillows and hit her back.

"Hey! Your not allowed to hit girls!" she said to him.

"Girl? Where? I don't see one in here." Then he hit her again with the pillow.

"You jerk!" she hit him back and their pillow fight started.

Roxas threw a pillow at her from across the room, but she ducked and it missed.

"Ha! Now you have no weapon!" she said to him then charged at him and beat him to death with the pillow.

"Ok, ok! I give, you win!" Roxas yelled out.

"Yes! That's right, I'm the winner!" she said to herself, but having dropped her guard, Roxas got up and tackled her onto the bed.

"You never stop till you win, don't you?" Namine said to Roxas from under him.

"I wont give up any fight. Even one against you." He said then lowered his head and touched his nose to hers then kissed her slowly, and it soon became more passionate.

Namine made him roll over on his back so she could lay on him like a pillow again. She cuddled up close to him and placed her head on his chest so she could hear his heart beating. Roxas slowly stroked her hair with his hand as her head raised and lowered slightly with every breath he took. Then Namine sat up for a moment to turn on her CD player, which was sitting on the table next to her bed.

Come stop your crying, it will be all right  
Just take my hand, hold it tight  
I will protect you from all around you  
I will be here dont you cry

For one so small,you seem so strong  
My arms will hold you keep you safe and warm  
This bond between us cant be broken  
I will be here dont you cry

Cuz you'll be in my heart  
Yes, youll be in my heart  
From this day on  
Now and forever more  
You'll be in my heart  
No matter what they say  
You'll be here in my heart  
Always

Why cant they understand the way we feel  
They just dont trust what they can't explain  
I know were different but deep inside us  
Were not that different at all

Namine got off Roxas and laid next to him on her side and stared into his eyes. He looked right back into her eyes. She took her hand and ran the fingers through his messy hair. It was so soft.

"Did you know that you bright blue eyes have a little bit of green and gold in them?" Namine said to Roxas. "Right around your black pupils, they look like rings."

"Did _you_ know that _your _bright blue eyes have a little bit of brown and gold in them that look like rings too?" Roxas said to her.

And youll be in my heart  
Yes, youll be in my heart  
From this day on  
Now and forever more  
Youll be in my heart  
No matter what they say  
Youll be here in my heart  
Always

Dont listen to them, cause what do they know  
We need each other, to have and to hold  
Theyll see in time, I know

When destiny calls you, you must be strong  
I may not be with you, but you gotta hold on  
Theyll see in time, I know

Well show them together cuz...

Youll be in my heart  
I believe, youll be in my heart  
Ill be there from this day on  
Now and forever more

Then the front door to the house opening broke the moment. Namine shot up off the bed and began fixing her hair and her shirt then ran out the bedroom door to greet her parents who had just arrived.

Always...  
Ill be with you  
Ill be there for you always  
Always and always  
Just look over your shoulder  
Just look over your shoulder  
Just look over your shoulder  
Ill be there always

……………………………..

Namine's parents had just walked through the front door.

"Namine, we're home!" called out her father.

Namine was so happy to hear her father's voice. She hadn't seen her parents in so long. And she really wanted to introduce them to Roxas.

"Come on Roxas, my parents are finally home I want you to meet them!" she said as she jumped up off her bed and went over to the door out into the hallway. She looked down over the railing and saw them walking into the living room.

"Hi mom, hi dad, I missed you both so much!" she said to them. "I have someone I want you to meet-" she turned around to point at Roxas but he wasn't behind her.

"Who would that be honey?" her mother asked.

"Hold on, I guess I'll have to go get him." Namine went back into her room to get Roxas. But when she went into her room, she couldn't see him anywhere.

"Roxas where did you go? I highly doubt you went out the second story window…did you?" she checked outside the window just in case. But he wasn't out there. She turned back around to see one of his feet sticking out from her closet door.

"Roxas what the hell are you doing in there? Come out here so you can meet my parents." She said to him as she opened the closet door.

"…your parents kind of scare me." he said quietly.

"Aw, you shouldn't be afraid of my parents, they're not going to bite your head off. Just don't swear in front of them or anything like that. They're nothing like my grandmother." Namine said to him.

But Roxas just backed up behind her clothes that were hanging in her closet.

"Roxas if you don't get you ass outta there then I wont feed you anymore." Namine threatened him. So he came out.

"Now look at you, you have dust and junk all over you." She said as she began to dust him off. "You really are a nervous wreck when it comes to meeting new people." She gave him a hug when she was all done getting the dust off him from the back of her closet to calm him down a little. It seemed to work. She could feel him relax a bit. She then let go of him and took his hand and led him out of her room and down the stairs to meet her parents. When they got down there, her parents stood up and walked over to them.

"Mom, dad, this is Roxas." Namine introduced him.

"So this is the Roxas we hear so much about in your phone calls." Her mother said as she extended a hand to Roxas.

"Er, hello." He said to her as he took her hand.

"Hey there Roxas." Her father said as he too walked over and shook hands. He was an instant celebrity with them.

They sat down in the living room and talked and asked questions. Such as where Roxas came from, who he knew, and how he meet Namine. Roxas had won their hearts over with his story. How he meet Namine by saving her from some late night gangsters, then how she took him to the shelter to take care of him, then they quickly fell in love. Namine also mentioned to them about Xemnas, and the rest of Roxas' gang. They were speechless about that part.

Namine's parents opened their arms and home to him. Allowing him to stay as long as he needed a home. And Roxas couldn't be happier.

_Somewhere in the geto_

"When is Roxas getting back? I don't think I can take all these puppies for much longer!" Axel said as he tossed two puppies out of his room, one holding a pair of his boxers in it's mouth.

"I don't see why you think their so annoying, there're cute." Larxene said as she held a black one close.

"I don't care if there're cute, there're chewing this place to pieces and crapping all over everything!" He said as he tried to get all seven together, but they all kept running away from him. He grabbed one. "Ha! I got you, you little-" he stopped short when he felt something warm and wet running down the front of his jacket. "Ah! You son of a-" But then Larxene came over and took the puppy from him before he did something nasty to it.

"Just…keep…them…away…from…me. Got that memorized?" Axel said firmly and slowly.

"Ok, ok, you don't have to shit a brick." Larxene said as she held three of the puppies in her arms into another room while the rest followed.

Roxie walked over to Axel and sat down next to him and looked up at him with her tongue hanging out of her mouth. He looked down at her.

"What do you want?" was what he said to Roxie. But she just stared up at him, not making a noise.

"What? I'm not going to play with you if that's what you want." But the dog just stared up at him still. "Are you hungry?" then Roxie barked. "Well I am too, why don't _you _feed _me_ this time instead?" and he walked into the kitchen and Roxie followed.

_Back at Namine's_

It was a little after noon and Roxas and Namine were out in the courtyard, lying in the tall soft green grass together. Big white puffy clouds floated across the sky and sparrows were singing in the trees. The two couldn't be more relaxed. Then of course something had to ruin the moment, something wet and warm dripped onto Roxas' face. He jumped up in a panic.

"Ah! What was that?" He yelled as he tried to wipe off the wet substance on his face. He then opened his eye's to see his dog panting in his face. "I despise you." But Roxie just licked his face.

"I couldn't just wait around all day for you to come and pick up your dog so I decided to drop it off for you." Axel said as he approached them holding a large cardboard box with the seven puppies in it.

"Oh yeah! I kinda forgot I left Roxie at your place. Sorry about that Axel." Said Roxas as he stood up and took the box from him and placed it next to Namine who picked up one of the puppies.

"That's ok, I don't mind baby sitting your animal for maybe a few hours at most, just don't leave it with me for more than a day. I can't stand animals!" said Axel. "Well, I'll be seeing you around Roxie-boy, I got stuff to do." And with that Axel waved as he walked out the front gate.

"'Roxie-boy'?" Roxas thought to himself.

"Wow look Roxas, the puppies got so much bigger while they were gone." Namine said as she handed him a black puppy with some white on it's chest.

"You know your parents wont let you keep all these puppies. So what are we gonna do with them?" asked Roxas.

"Well I don't even know if my parents will even let us keep Roxie." Namine said with a sigh.

Roxie looked up at Namine and cocked her head to one side when she heard her name mentioned in the conversation. And Namine just patted her on the head.

"Well I guess we should see if they will let us keep Roxie, cuz I would hate to give her up." Roxas said. And then Namine put the two puppies she took out of the box back and Roxas picked it up and both of them walked back to the house.

Namine walked into the kitchen alone and saw her parents talking while sitting at the table.

"Hey mom, dad. You know how I've always been asking for a pet?"

"Yes…" Her dad said. Thinking she was going to be asking to go down to the pet shop or something.

"Well, I forgot to tell you that Roxas has a dog, and he has no where else to let the dog stay, so I was wondering if it was alright with you guys…" she started.

"You want us to take in Roxas' dog?" her father asked.

"Well, yeah. If that's ok." She said.

"How big of a dog are we talking about?" he asked her.

"Honey you don't really think we can take care of someone else's dog, do you?" Namine's mom said to her father.

"Well sure, I always thought a dog was a nice idea too." Her father said. "Now, like I was asking, how big of a dog is it?"

"You can see her for yourself, she's in the front yard with Roxas." Namine said to her parents.

"Really now?" and so both her mom and dad got up and walked to the front door.

They saw Roxas standing my the three stairs leading up to the front door holding a box of puppies with Roxie sitting next to him.

"Namine you never said anything about puppies!" Her father said when he saw the box Roxas was holding. "I said we could have a _dog_, not _dogs_. No."

"Ok, but what if we found different homes for the puppies?" Roxas asked.

"If you could do that, then sure, I'll take your dog." Said Namine's father.

"Great! Thank you daddy!" Namine said and gave him a hug.

"You still have to find those other puppies a home first you know." He said.

"Yes daddy I know." And she walked over to Roxas, taking his hand and leading him to the front gate. "Come on Roxas, I know who will take them."

"Wait, you do?" he said as he followed her while carrying the box of puppies.

_Back at the geto_

"If I ever see another puppy it'll be too soon." Axel said as he scrubbed the stains the puppies left with Demyx's help.

"I donno, I liked the puppies. It tickled when they licked my feet." Demyx said smiling.

The there was a sudden knock on the front door that was so shity, it was about to fall of the hinges.

"Oh now what?" Axel said as he tossed the scrubby down on the floor and went to the door. When he opened it, there was no one there. "What the? Is there someone out there who thinks this is funny!" he was about to slam the door closed when he saw something that made him scream.

"What's wrong? What's wrong!" Demyx said as he ran over to Axel. And there on the doorstep was the box of puppies Axel despised so much. "Yes! We get the puppies!" and Demyx took the box inside.

"No, no, no! They can't stay here! Err, Roxas where are you! I know your out there somewhere watching this!" Axel started to look around but couldn't see him anywhere. He felt something wet and warm drizzle down his leg, looking down to see a white puppy. "ROXAS!"

_Namine's house_

"Did you find them all homes already?" Namine's father asked when he saw them return without the box.

"Yeah I had some…friends who were asking about them." Roxas told him.

"Well then, I guess I have to keep my word and house your dog for you now." He said.

"Thanks daddy!" and Namine hugged Roxie around the neck.

Night soon fell and Namine's mother made a wonderful dinner. They had roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, and some steamed vegetables, (that part Roxas didn't eat). Soon after dinner everyone was quite sleepy. Namine's parents cleaned up the kitchen and Roxas took Namine up to her room because she was only half awake. She was starting to become so tired that Roxas had to carry her up the stairs and into her room.

He gently placed her down on her bed, now almost completely asleep. He sat next to her, just looking at her sleeping face. Then her eyes slowly opened to look up at his face. She smiled and reached up and placed her hand on his right check. He put his hand over hers and smiled back. She scooted over a little to let him lay down beside her. When he did, she cuddled up to him, and he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. She nearly fell asleep instantly, but a sudden cold swept across her and she shivered. Roxas felt her shudder from the cold and reached over to pull a soft fuzzy blanket that was draped over a chair next to the bed and wrapped it around Namine.

She smiled again to him and reached up to kiss the corner of his mouth. She wrapped her arms around him too, as well as the other half of the blanket. She knew he was cold too. She buried her face in his neck and with a big sigh, fell into a deep sleep. Roxas rested his head on top of hers as he thought to himself.

_If I could have just one wish, I would wish to wake up everyday to the sound of your breath on my neck, the warmth of your lips on my cheek, the touch of your fingers on my skin, and the feel of your heart beating with mine... Knowing that I could never find that feeling with anyone other than you. _

**- Dragon's blood**

_Thinking of you, wherever you are…_


	18. Epilogue

_So since I edited all the chapters and did my best to make them better (and not look like a five year old wrote it), I decided to make an epilogue to my fic._

_**If you haven't already, I ask you to re read my story if you liked the first version. And also, don't read this epilogue if you haven't re read the story! Ah hell, you'll probably do it anyway…**_

Epilogue 

_8 years later_

After Namine was done with school, she soon attended collage for a degree in nursing. She also still devoted much of her time as a volunteer at the shelter.

And there were new residents there too - Axel, Larxene, Demyx, Marluxia, Zexion, Lexaeus and the group's seven dogs which were Roxie's puppies.

Axel put his dislikes of the home aside and brought the group there. It was in all of their best interest, with another rival gang becoming more and more threatening to them by the day, a lack of essential resources, and the fact that Larxene was carrying Axel's child.

A week before Axel took them to the shelter, Luxord and Xigbar got arrested because they were the only two caught in a fight with the rival gang by the police and were sentenced to five years.

When Namine went to volunteer at the home, Roxas of course came along too. To help and hang with his friends. The shelter would always be his second home.

Roxas and Namine were now both 23 and living together in an apartment, along with their dog Roxie. Namine had a job at the local hospital as a nurse and Roxas was a volunteer firefighter. He also went to night school to learn the basics of spelling, reading and math.

…………………………………………..

Roxas and Namine were walking through the park at dusk. And there was no one else but them at that time, and it looked as though it was going to start raining any moment.

"Roxas, I think we should go now, it's getting dark and it's going to rain." Namine said as she walked beside Roxas with her left arm hooked in his right.

"In a moment I promise, I just want to show you something first, over here." Roxas lead her over to a huge fountain with statues of lions spewing water from their roaring mouths into the circular pool beneath them.

"Is there something here I haven't seen before?" Namine asked him, sounding a little annoyed at why she was taken to a fountain she's only seen a hundred times.

"Well I hope so." Was Roxas' reply to her. She unhooked her arm from his and sat down on a bench that was facing the lion fountain and crossed her arms.

"So, what is it that you wanted to show me so badly?" She asked.

"Ok, but first I want to tell you something."

"Sure, but make it quick, I'm freezing out here and I want to go home and warm up already."

He smiled at her, then closed his eyes and sighed to himself then said, "Namine, I've known you since we were both fifteen, and now eight years later I still couldn't love you more."

Namine began to show a smile, her impatience subsiding a little.

"And ever since I meet you those eight years ago, you've shown me how wonderful life is and how much I have to live for. Each and every moment spent with you is a moment spent in paradise."

Now Namine had completely forgotten that she was cold and aching to go home. She was now fully focused on Roxas' next words.

"Namine, if you feel the same passion as I do, then you can understand when I say this…" Roxas walked up to Namine who was sitting on the bench, knelt down in front of her on one knee and began to dig in the inside of his jacket for something.

"Roxas…" She said as she covered her mouth with her hand.

"Namine, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. So," he then took out a small box from his jacket and opened it up so she could see the gold and silver ring inside, "Namine, will you marry me?"

She could do nothing but stare in shock at the ring, then she looked at Roxas. She did her best to find her words, but it was no use. So she showed him her answer by jumping him in a hug. He caught her and swung her around in his arms. When he set her down on her feet, she kissed him with the most passionate kiss she had ever given him, her arms were wrapped around his neck and his around her waist.

When she broke the kiss to look him in the eyes, he asked, "So I'll take that as a…"

"_Yes!"_ She had said at last.

As they kissed there in front of the fountain, the rain began to fall.

-**Dragon's blood**

_Thinking of you, wherever you are.  
We pray for our sorrows to end,  
and hope that our hearts will blend...  
Now I step forward to realize this wish._

And who knows:  
Starting a new journey may not be so hard  
or maybe it has already begun.

There are many worlds,  
but they share the same sky--  
one sky, one destiny.


End file.
